Brooklynite’s debut novel conjures futuristic New York
Brooklyn BookBeat: Author To Celebrate Book Launch in Brooklyn
Brooklynite Adam Sternbergh, culture editor of The New York Times Magazine, has long been writing about New York City. Formerly an editor-at-large for New York magazine, he has written for numerous publications, including GQ and The Times of London. Recently, though, Sternbergh has moved beyond his background in journalism and tried his hand at New York-centric fiction. The result is an enthralling debut novel titled “Shovel Ready” (Crown, Jan. 14, 2014), in which he introduces us to Spademan, an extraordinary narrator who navigates a futuristic New York City. “Shovel Ready” has earned widespread praise from esteemed writers and critics, and the author will be appearing in Brooklyn to read from the novel on Jan. 16 at BookCourt in Cobble Hill.
Though set in the near future, “Shovel Ready” is inspired by the gritty, crime-ridden New York that existed just a few decades ago. Spademan, a former garbage man and loving husband, is now a lonely hit man. After a series of explosions destroy much of the city, masses of residents migrate across the world and New York loses its status as a tourist destination.
Spademan, who has stayed put, discovers that his new occupation — killing people for money —is not so unlike his job as a garbage man. He travels throughout the city, visiting Central Park (where he muses that “the rich never come out to the park anymore, could give a shit about Strawberry Fields”) and Brooklyn (where he walks through “Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens, past the blocks of boarded-up and blacked-out brownstones.”)