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Shadowbrook by Beverly Swerling
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Shadowbrook by Beverly Swerling
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City of Glory by Beverly Swerling
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City of God by Beverly Swerling
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City of Dreams by Beverly Swerling
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City of Promise by Beverly Swerling
City of Promise
Announcement Scroller
The latest of the beloved City books is out now.
City of Promise
is the story of Mollie Brannigan and Joshua Turner. Mollie has been raised in a brothel and knows exactly what she doesn’t want in a husband. Josh has come home from the Civil War minus one leg, but with his ambition intact. They fall in love and marry, which is just the beginning of their story.
In the New York of their day there are millionaire’s mansions and horrible slums, and only boarding houses in between.
Josh is determined to build the first apartment houses for everyman. He and Mollie face heartbreak and terror in their personal lives; nonetheless Josh becomes a real estate tycoon who goes on to create what we know the Upper East Side.
Along the way there are dwarves who make iron and steel, giants who make music, a “fat lady from Barnum’s freak show” who escapes to preside over Mama Jack’s Cave, and shadowy figures from the past who threaten to bring it all crashing down.
And there is, of course, the city.
The story opens immediately after the Civil War. When it ends in 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge has just been opened and modern Manhattan is peeping over the horizon.
The lanterns Peter Stuyvesant commanded must hang from every seventh window have become electric street lighting, while indoors gas light is giving way to incandescent bulbs.
The town criers who raced through the streets shouting “To arms! To arms!” have been replaced by the first telephones: Wooden boxes fixed to the wall, male operators (universally rude), and 250 subscribers paying $60 a month – equivalent to $1,400.00 today.
The “el,” overhead railroads, spill sparks and soot on all below as they attempt to tame the incredible traffic, but the subway is already being talked about.
And above all and through it all, the gilded age is in full swing and New York is getting its glitz on…
Coming to this site soon:
• The updated Turner and Devrey family tree so many have asked for.
• New e-book editions of some of Beverly’s books.
• More news of her next book, a novel of intrigue from Viking Press,
Bristol House.
An American woman on a quest in contemporary London and a ghost from Tudor times, both beset by love and terror, whose destinies are on a collision course.
