Books Set in New York City

From the neon buzz of Times Square to the quiet corners of Central Park, the brownstones of Brooklyn to the hustle of the Lower East Side, these novels capture the restless energy, grit, and magic of the world’s most storied city. Whether you’re a lifelong New Yorker or an armchair visitor, these stories will drop you right onto the pavement.
A special limited-edition paperback of the stunning debut novel by the New York Times bestselling author of Pachinko, following a Korean-American daughter of first-generation immigrants who strives to join Manhattan’s inner circle.
Features:
- Full cover with special effects
- Four-color stenciled edges
- Four-color quote sheet
National Book Award finalist Min Jin Lee introduces the unforgettable Casey Han: a strong-willed, Queens-bred daughter of Korean immigrants, who seeks both glamour and insight in Manhattan—a glittering borough she cannot afford. Fresh out of Princeton with an economics degree, no job, and a white boyfriend she cannot introduce to her parents, Casey is determined to claim a space for herself—but how and at what cost?
Lee’s bestselling, sharp-eyed, sweeping epic of ambition, dreams, and uncertainties of life—set in a landscape where millionaires scramble for free lunches the poor are too proud to accept—is an addictively readable, startlingly sympathetic portrait of intergenerational strife and immigrant struggle, revealing the fascinating lives of a vital community clinging to its old ways in a moneyed city of haves and have-nots.
“Mesmerizing.” —USA Today
CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, 1951 – 2026
The “brilliant, funny, meaningful novel” (The New Yorker) that established J. D. Salinger as a leading voice in American literature—and that has instilled in millions of readers around the world a lifelong love of books.
“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”
The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days, grappling with feelings of loneliness, grief, and alienation. His search for something genuine in a world that feels insincere and superficial remains urgent and unmistakably modern.
In Holden’s comic, cutting, and painfully sincere voice, readers discover a comradeship and understanding as they recognize the ache of being lost, and the impulse toward rebellion that comes with the passage into adulthood. The Catcher in the Rye resonates deeply and personally for every new reader.
A young New Yorker grieving his mother’s death is pulled into a gritty underworld of art and wealth in this “extraordinary” and beloved novel that “connects with the heart as well as the mind” (Stephen King, New York Times Book Review), named a New York Times Best Book of the 21st Century.
Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don’t know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by a longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into a wealthy and insular art community.
As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love — and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.
The Goldfinch is a mesmerizing, stay-up-all-night and tell-all-your-friends triumph, an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention. From the streets of New York to the dark corners of the art underworld, this “soaring masterpiece” examines the devastating impact of grief and the ruthless machinations of fate (Ron Charles, Washington Post).
The truth is never skin deep.
It was supposed to be a romantic getaway weekend in New York City. Breanna’s new boyfriend, Ty, took care of everything—the train tickets, the dinner reservations, the rented four-story luxury rowhouse in Jersey City with a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline. But when Bree comes downstairs their final morning, she’s shocked. There’s a stranger laying dead in the foyer, and Ty is nowhere to be found.
A Black woman alone in a new city, Bree is stranded and out of her depth—especially when it becomes clear the dead woman is none other than Janelle Beckett, the missing woman the entire Internet has become obsessed with. There’s only one person Bree can turn to: her ex-best friend, a lawyer with whom she shares a very complicated past. As the police and a social media mob close in, all looking for #JusticeForJanelle, Bree realizes that the only way she can help Ty—or herself—is to figure out what really happened that last night.
But when people only see what they want to see, can she uncover the truth hiding in plain sight?
"Fantastic. Only Garrett could craft a tale so adroitly attuned to our everyday fears." —S. A. Cosby, New York Times bestselling author of All the Sinners Bleed
"A propulsive murder mystery with relatable characters and heart-stopping twists."―Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of Local Woman Missing and Just the Nicest Couple
"Bree is unforgettable . . . you are in for such a ride." —Rachel Hawkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Villa
When Nick Carraway moves to West Egg, Long Island, he has no idea that the lavishly outfitted mansion next to his modest house is home to Jay Gatsby. Eventually, Nick becomes aware of Gatsby’s intense interest in his cousin Daisy Buchanan, and when Daisy’s brutish husband, Tom, probes Gatsby’s background, he uncovers unsavory revelations about his rival’s wealth. First published in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third novel offers a definitive portrait of the opulence and recklessness of the Jazz Age.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was first published in 1925. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, New York, it tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a wealthy, mysterious, and complex man driven by an obsession with his past, and Daisy Buchanan, a married woman he loved in his youth. Considered one of the greatest novels ever written, it explores the themes of love, loss, and the American Dream. The Great Gatsby has been adapted numerous times for film, most recently in 2013 starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby. Despite its commentary on a different time period in American history, the story is particularly relevant today—contrasting the glamorous lives of the wealthy with the realities beneath the surface and revealing the fallacy of the American Dream.
“Smart, sexy. I absolutely loved it.” —Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of My Sister’s Keeper
“Gutting, arousing, and sparklingly witty … a love story with depth.” —Vogue
Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer. Shane Hall is a reclusive, award-winning novelist. When the two meet at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their buried traumas, but the eyebrows of the Black literati. What no one knows is that when they were teenager, Eva and Shane spent one crazy week madly in love. They can pretend they’ve never met, but they can’t deny their chemistry—or the fact that they’ve been secretly writing to each other in their books through the years.
With its keen observations of creative life in America today, as well as the joys and complications of being a mother and a daughter, Seven Days in June is a hilarious starcrossed romance.
A Best Book of the Year: NPR • Kirkus Review • Marie Claire • PopSugar • New York Public Library • Bustle • Reader’s Digest • Literary Hub
A Best Book of the Summer: Harper’s Bazaar • Oprah Daily • Shondaland • The Los Angeles Times • CBS News • PureWow • Good Housekeeping • BuzzFeed • theSkimm
A Best Romance of 2021: The Washington Post • USA Today • Vulture • Goodreads • BookPage • BuzzFeed • Happy Mag