Brooklynite’s second novel brings to life post-9/11 New York
Brooklyn BookBeat: Author to Speak in Park Slope
Brooklyn author Kristopher Jansma’s award-winning first novel “The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards” was published in 2013 to wide critical acclaim. The New Yorker praised his “wry humor and steady hand … [that] never fail to entertain,” while The Village Voice hailed him as “F. Scott Fitzgerald meets Wes Anderson.” Now, Jansma returns with “Why We Came to the City” (Viking; on sale Feb. 16), a sweeping story bursting with all the wit, heart and poignancy of his debut. The author will appear in Park Slope to speak about his book on Feb. 16 at Community Bookstore (7 p.m., 143 Seventh Ave.).
Set in post-9/11, Great Recession New York, this dazzling new novel centers on a close-knit group of twenty-somethings who find their lives forever altered by a tragedy that threatens to rip them apart.
Five years after college, these friends have all come to call the bustle and grit of New York their home. There is Irene, a visionary artist with a mysterious past; Sara, her ambitious, gregarious best friend, endlessly overworked in her job as an editor; George, Sara’s astronomer boyfriend with an emerging drinking problem; Jacob, a poet manqué and loudmouth who earns his rent working at a psychiatric facility; and William, a shy investment banker who finds his life upended after he falls desperately in love with Irene.