Part urban history, part thriller, part character study, this mesmerizing novel delves into the young life experiences of William James, the seminal nineteenth-century American thinker whose ideas have so profoundly influenced American thought. After suffering a devastating mental collapse at the age of thirty, James emerged from the ordeal more confident and focused, but no one has been able to account for the transformation.
Author Jon Boorstin imagines those missing months, taking James on an adventure in the rough streets of nineteenth-century Manhattan. In that bustling milieu James is forced to test his ideas against the harsh realities of an unforgiving city coming into its own. An evocative re-creation of Old New York and an illuminating look at a young man on the path to greatness, Boorstin’s novel is spellbinding literary entertainment.
"An ambitious and innovative reconstruction... a vivid picture of the roughest and most cultivated aspects of New York in the 1870s." - Roger Pasquier
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