The New York Public Library and WNYC—two indispensable New York institutions—are partnering to host a book club that brings New Yorkers together and fosters community.

The January title is Richard Price’s Lazarus Man, a bravura portrait of a community on the edge of disintegration. Rich with indelible characters and high drama, Lazarus Man is a riveting work of suspense and social vision by one of our greatest writers.

East Harlem, 2008. In an instant, a five-story tenement collapses into a fuming hill of rubble, pancaking the cars parked in front and coating the street with a thick layer of ash. As the city’s rescue services and media outlets respond, the surrounding neighborhood descends into chaos. By day’s end, six bodies have been recovered but many of the other tenants are missing.

It’s here we find intertwining portraits of a group of compelling and singular characters whose lives are permanently affected by the disaster. Anthony Carter—whose miraculous survival transforms him into a man with a message and a passionate sense of mission. Felix Pearl—a young transplant to the city whose photography and film work that day provoke in this previously unformed soul a sharp sense of personal destiny. Royal Davis—the owner of a failing Harlem funeral home whose desperate trolling of the scene for potential customers triggers a change of heart and a quest to find another path in life. And Mary Roe—a veteran city detective, driven in part by her own family’s brutal history, who becomes obsessed with finding one of the building’s missing.

Online & In-Person Discussion & Signing with the author.

**Disclaimer: This post is informational. No Affiliation with events.**