A Prayer for the City

Praise for Buzz Bissinger’s A Prayer for the City

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year
Finalist for the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award

“An extraordinary book, an insider’s account of the daily workings of a big-city administration.” —The New York Review of Books

“A fascinating, humane portrait of the ills of urban America.” —The New Yorker

“A full-scale portrait of a struggling American metropolis that brings to mind such classics of urban reportage and analysis as J. Anthony Lukas’s Common Ground and Nicholas Lemann’s The Promised Land.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Brilliant and compelling. A Prayer for the City movingly captures the poignancy—the hope and heartbreak—of urban government in America.” —Robert A. Caro

“There has never been a better portrait of how a big city functions and how one mayor operates to push, pull, and prod the cement of bureaucracy as well as the souls of individual citizens toward a better place. This is actually more of a novel than it is current history, filled with insight and anecdotes that make you feel good about politics and people, too.” —The Boston Globe

“Superb. . . . Bissinger’s writing, sparse and urgent, always shines.” —The Miami Herald