The Gods of New York

“A rip-roaring, sweeping, essential work of history, The Gods of New York offers a deeply reported and brilliantly observed account of how the modern city was born and why all of us continue to live with the results, for better and for worse.”—Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of King: A Life

“This rollicking chronicle of New York City at the end of the 1980s, by a staff writer for The New York Times magazine, tells a story of near death and glamorous rebirth. Mahler captures a metropolis emerging from economic crisis to become the capital of global finance, while navigating AIDS, crack, homelessness, racial unrest and the power plays of larger-than-life characters like Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump.”—The New York Times

“Mahler expertly captures the relentlessness and simultaneity of incident that characterize life in New York City. History, in his telling, becomes a mosaic of interlocking tragedies . . . the wholesale reanimation, in compulsively readable prose, of a pivotal chunk of history that turns out to have a lot to say to readers today.”—The Washington Post

“A riot of stories from a period beset by racial tensions, the crack epidemic, soaring crime, sensational cases and an economic boom overwhelmingly boosting the rich . . . such an enthralling read. The city Mahler shows is gone, but its stories remain.”—The Guardian

“Expansive yet fast-paced . . . an astute, propulsive history of the ‘entrenched’ inequality and zany politics that came to dominate the city and the nation” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Skillfully constructed and vividly written.”—The Economist

“A narrative as sprawling and multifaceted as the city itself.”—The New Yorker

“A captivating new book from Jonathan Mahler (Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning) that tracks the city and its triumphs, tribulations, and scandals in the four formative years between 1986 and 1990. It’s a story of newly minted Masters of the Universe and the AIDS epidemic, of nightlife and lowlifes . . . in short, a real-life Bonfire of the Vanities.”—Town & Country

“A deeply enviable book.”—John Ganz, author of When the Clock Broke

“Expansive yet fast-paced . . . an astute, propulsive history of the ‘entrenched’ inequality and zany politics that came to dominate the city and the nation”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A propulsive, gorgeously reported account of the forces that reshaped New York City in the late 1980s, The Gods of New York is brilliant historical non-fiction that doubles as a warning about the future.”—Emily Nussbaum, author of Cue the Sun

“The Gods of New York may be the best nonfiction book ever written about the city.”—Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author of Our Country Friends

“This is a story about the Big Apple, about the tree that birthed this forbidden fruit, and about the worms hiding inside.”—Wright Thompson, bestselling author of The Barn