In Amor Towles’ early novel we are transported to the decadent sometimes debauched New York City of the year 1938. The sassy tone and staccato style of Katie Kontent’s narrative reminds one of Fitzgerald’s world of music and late nights in neighborhood decades from gentrification. The sweet finale of friends claiming friends, saying their name at the start of each day, however, recalls a more gentle voice and reminds us all that a photograph is just the first line of the story.
– H.S.