I have this feeling…

This feeling that New York has sucked me in.,,

This feeling that the new books I read are too “New York-ish.”

That’s because New York is exhausting.  We love the art museums, the operas, and the theater, but…  it’s bewildering.  We’re lost on the subway. We’re lost in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We ask the guards where the exits are. And how do we get to the airport, please?

 I love the New York classics, Henry James’ Washington Square and Mary McCarthy’s The Group, but modern New York fiction is less relatable.

I reviewed my book list of 2025 so far to see how many of the new books are set in New York. It turns out not many. at all!

The New York-ish List

SET IN NEW YORK CITY AND VERMONT, Adam Haslett’s latest novel, Sons and Mothers, is set partly in New York, partly in Vermont. He gets a free pass because of the dual setting..Born in New York, he grew up in Massachusetts. He may or may not live in New York. I have no idea. (4 stars)

SET IN NEW YORK CITY AND SUBURBAN NEW JERSEY, Elizabeth Harris’s comic novel, How to Sleep at Night,is extremely New York-ish.  Isn’t New Jersey part of New York?  Just kidding.  New Jersey is as important as New York here, and the character in New York is a lost soul rather than an investment banker, Harris gets a free pass.  By the way, she lives in New York City. (4 stars)

SET IN MANHATTAN AT THE TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY, Olivia Wolfgang-Smith’s Mutual Interest is an enjoyable historical novel. Old New York is entirely different from the present.  So she gets a free pass! Wolfgang-Smith lives in Brooklyn. (4 stars.)

SET IN NEW YORK CITY, Katie Kitamura’ latest novel, Audition, is a masterpiece. Longlisted for the Booker Prize, it is brilliant and strange. Divided into two parts, it tells two different versions of three characters’ lives. The setting isn’t integral to the novel, but the narrator is a famous stage actress in NY. Kitamura lives in New York. (5 stars.)

IT TURNS OUT THAT THE OTHER NEW BOOKS I’VE READ ARE NOT SET IN NEW YORK.  AND THE TRUTH IS, I ENJOYED THE FIVE ON THE “NON-NY LIST” MORE THAN THE NEW YORK-ISH ONES, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF AUDITION..

The Non-New York list:

Anne Tyler’s Three Days in June, set in Baltimore. (4 stars)

Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel, set in southern California. (5 stars)

Elizabeth Strout’s Tell Me Everything, set in Maine. (5 stars)

Annika Newlin’s The Colony, set in Sweden. (5 stars)

Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police, set on a fictitious island. (5 stars)

Soljev Balle’s ‘s On the Calculation of Volume I, set in various locations in Europe. (5 stars)

I read three of the five above on the Non-Ny list because they were on award longlists, either the Women’s Prize longlist or the International Booker Prize longlist. And I enjoyed all five of these,

Let me know your favorite New York-ish books of 2025!