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City on Fire

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City on Fire

By: Garth Risk Hallberg
Narrated by: Alex McKenna, Bronson Pinchot, MacLeod Andrews, Paul Michael, Rebecca Lowman, Tristan Morris
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About this listen

New York. 1977. Be there when it explodes.

It’s New Year’s Eve, 1976, and New York is a city on the edge. As midnight approaches, a blizzard sets in - and amidst the fireworks, an unmistakable sound rings out across Central Park. Gunshots. Two of them.

The search for the shooter will bring together a rich cast of New Yorkers. From the reluctant heirs to one of the city's greatest fortunes to a couple of Long Island kids drawn to the punk scene downtown. From the newly arrived and enchanted to those so sick of the city they want to burn it to the ground.

All these lives are connected to one another - and to the life that still clings to that body in the park. Whether they know it or not, they are bound up in the same story - a story where history and revolution, love and art, crime and conspiracy are all packed into a single shell, ready to explode.

Then, on July 13, 1977, the lights go out in New York City.

©2015 Garth Risk Hallberg (P)2015 Random House AudioBooks Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction New York

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All stars
Most relevant  

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Interesting realistic characters

What did you like best about this story?

It reflects the seventies

Did the narrators do a good job differentiating each of the characters? How?

The narrator's voice becomes boring over a long book.

An Engaging Story

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mesmerising work that spans the 70s. Risk Hallberg is brilliant. great audio book too, well read and we'll produced. definitely recommend if you're looking for a deep but accessible story.

A marvellous masterpiece of character driven story

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A monumental book about a great city, at a crossroads of time and social upheaval. the story's main part of the plot develops around the 1976 july 4th bicentennial year and culminates on july 1977 with the blackout of of the five barrows. this is a time when the bronx looked like bombed city, central park was a dangerous place, the subway were one moving homage to graffiti, needle parks and sexual cruising were part of urban life , all this things were as common as racial divisions and social inequality. You could feel the electricity building, the danger lurking every time you walked the streets, it was also exciting, amazing, and you could never get enough of that pulse, that beat that this city had on those years a lifetime away now.

The novel captures all this elements and creates some brilliant characterizations that sparkle of the page and make you forget about plot. The language, the use of language is rich and beautiful, a work with reverence for words an author that loves to make them sparkle like the jewels they are and gives hundreds of pages of this particular delight.

Yes it is long, yes it could have been shorter, but it would not have the eloquence and beauty it deserves, this book is not about plot but time and place and the people that inhabit that space, it a congregation a serendipity of events that find a way to a gorgeous finale that deserves every page it takes to get there.

A New York state of mind

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I read this book when it first came out a few years ago and lives it at the time. During lockdown Ive become obsessed with audio books and decided to listen to City on Fire. I literally couldn't wait to put my earplugs in and it certainly made chores and lockdown much more bearable! Fabulous characters, and great story line.

Even better second time round

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It might be me but I really struggled with this story. possibly I wasn't able to concentrate on it enough during my daily commute but the charectors at times merged into each other. The language was flowery and seemed to try to hard to be clever. It was slow and never suprised me. It's a few hours of my life that I won't get back.

It might be me

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