return to home
 
 
          Bookmark and Share        Email
 
  This Week's Recommendations    |     Hardcovers Coming Soon    |     Paperbacks Coming Soon    |     Recent Hardcovers    |     Recent Paperbacks
   Genres   |    Settings   |    Time Periods   |    Themes   |    Favorites   |    Award Winners   |    Book Finder   |    Surprise Me!   |    Tag cloud
   Recent Interviews    |     All Interviews    |     Author Bios    |     Author Websites    |     Pronunciation Guide
   Free Newsletters   |    Wordplay   |    Book Giveaway   |    BookBrowse Polls   |    Literary Quotes   |    Personality Quiz   |    Gift Membership
   Recent Membership Magazines    |     Magazine Archives     |     Invite the Author    |     My Reading List    |     First Impressions    |     My Account
   Editor's Blog    |     Best Reader Reviews    |     Book News    |     Meet the Reviewers    |     Stay In Touch
   About Us   |    Tour   |    Member Benefits   |    Join   |    Gift Memberships   |    Library Subscriptions   |    FAQ   |    People Say   |    Contact Us
Search BookBrowse
Suggested Links
This Book's Themes:
Free Twice-Monthly Newsletters
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Win This Book!


Cherries in Winter jacket

Cherries in Winter
by Suzan Colón


'A charming, satisfying memoir of food, family and overcoming hard times.'

Enter To Win Now!


wordplay
Solve this clue:
"M H While T S S"

and be entered to win....
New Author
Interviews
Peter Ackroyd
A short essay by Peter Ackroyd about his 2009 novel The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein
Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall, discusses her Booker shortlisted novel at the the London bookstore, Daunt Books (3 part video)
William Kamkwamba
A short video about William Kamkwamba, author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Louis Bayard
An essay by Louis Bayard about The Black Tower, an historical mystery set in the early 19th century
   Summary and Book Reviews

City of Dreams: Summary and book reviews of City of Dreams by Beverly Swerling, plus links to an excerpt from City of Dreams and a biography of Beverly Swerling.

City of Dreams City of Dreams
A Novel of Early Manhattan
by Beverly Swerling
Hardcover: Oct 2001,
591 pages.
Paperback: Jun 2002,
592 pages.

Publication information
Read an Excerpt
Reading Guide
Reader Reviews

Author Biography
Books by this Author
Critics' Opinion:  
Readers' Rating: 
About BookBrowse Rankings
Buy This Book
Themes Members Only Read-Alikes Members Only Add to Reading List  Members Only
Book Summary

Rich with unforgettable characters and history, intricately plotted and utterly absorbing, City of Dreams is a stirring saga of early Manhattan and the beginnings of medical science told by a master storyteller.

In 1661, Lucas Turner and his sister, Sally, stagger off a small wooden ship after eleven weeks at sea to make a fresh start in the rough and rowdy Dutch settlement of Nieuw Amsterdam.

Lucas, a barber surgeon, and Sally, an apothecary, are both gifted healers and bound to each other by blood and necessity. Yet as their new lives unfold, lust, betrayal, and murder will make them deadly enemies. In their struggle to survive in the New World, both make choices that will burden their descendants -- dedicated physicians and surgeons, pirates and whoremasters -- with a legacy of secrets and retribution. That heritage sets cousin against cousin, physician against surgeon, and ultimately, patriot against Tory.

In a city where slaves are burned alive on Wall Street, where James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams walk The Broad Way arguing America's destiny, and where one of the greatest hospitals in the world is born in former shipwrights' workshops by the East River, the fortunes of the two families are inextricably entwined. Their pride and ambition, their loves and hates, and their willingness to live by their own rules will shape the future of medicine, and the becoming of the dream that is New York.

Book Reviews


 Booklist
The early history of Manhattan is chronicled through six generations of a remarkable clan of surgeons, physicians, and apothecaries.

 Kirkus Reviews
Ambitious historical novel of New York City's medical practices from the 1630s to the 1780s, a first novel freighted with so much fact and family melodrama it almost sinks under its own weight. ....But early medicine and city history undeniably make for an interesting read.

 Publishers Weekly
... descriptions of early operations with crude instruments are detailed and riveting. The city of New York is a character in its own right, but even it cannot compete with the richly drawn, well-rounded people Swerling creates. This engrossing, generously imagined tale deserves the large audience it should find at a time when the founding fathers reign triumphant in biography.


This Book's Themes:
Read-Alikes:
Other books by this author
Buy This Book:

Become a Member
One Month Free
Editor's Choice
  •  Nov 19 
  •  Nov 17 
  •  Nov 15 
Nocturnes
Kazuo Ishiguro
One of the most celebrated writers of our time gives us his first cycle of short fiction: five brilliantly etched, interconnected stories in which music is a vivid and essential character.
Invisible
Paul Auster
“One of America’s greatest novelists” dazzlingly reinvents the coming-of-age story in his most passionate and surprising book to date.
The Lacuna
Barbara Kingsolver
In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their...
Chronic City
Jonathan Lethem
The acclaimed author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude returns with a roar with this gorgeous, searing portrayal of Manhattanites wrapped in their own delusions, desires, and lies.
Manhood for Amateurs
Michael Chabon
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author— "an immensely gifted writer and a magical prose stylist" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times)—offers his first major work of nonfiction, an autobiographical narrative as inventive, beautiful, and powerful as his acclaimed, award-winning fiction.
Recent Reader Reviews
Zorro by Isabel Allende
Like Robin Hood, Zorro is a story that almost everyone knows, but few have read. The original book by Johnston McCulley is out of print and ... read more
Three Cups of Tea by David O. Relin
I'm 13 years old and my teacher handed me this book and told me to read and do a report on it. I looked at the cover, saw the title (which made no ... read more
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
I'm 13 years old and my teacher handed me this book and told me to read and do a report on it. I looked at the cover, saw the title (which made no ... read more
RSS feed More...  
Most Viewed This Week
1. Brooklyn Bridge
Karen Hesse
2. The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
3. Three Cups of Tea
David O. Relin, Greg Mortenson
4. A Child Called It
Dave Pelzer
5. The Notebook
Nicholas Sparks
More...
Book Club Recommendations
The Wasted Vigil
by Nadeem Aslam
Paperback (Sep/09)
Graceling
by Kristin Cashore
Paperback (Sep/09)
The Given Day
by Dennis Lehane
Paperback (Sep/09)
The White Mary
by Kira Salak
Paperback (Sep/09)
More...
First Impressions
Members read and review books often months before they're published. See what they think in First Impressions!
The New Global Student
by Maya Frost
           (May/09)
State by State
by Matt Weiland & Sean Wilsey (editors)
           (Oct/09)
The Book of Illumination
by Mary Ann Winkowski
           (Oct/09)
More...
   Most Recent Blog Entries
So Many eReaders, Which to Choose?
Autumn Reading by Elizabeth Strout
It Takes All Kinds of Readers
Steampunk for Beginners by Cherie Priest
rss  RSS   rss  subscribe
  Latest BookBrowse News
The 2009 National Book Award Winners (Nov 19 2009)
The winners of the 2009 National Book Awards have been announced at the National Book Foundation's 60th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit... Full Story
Google Settlement Filed (Nov 13 2009)
After two delays, attorneys for the AAP, Authors Guild and Google filed an amended settlement agreement today in an effort to end litigation brought by the... Full Story
rss RSS feed More...
BookBrowse Poll
Q: When do you listen to audio books?
I don't listen to audio books
While walking
While doing household chores
While exercising
While working
In the car
At other times
Select Any That Apply
HOME Submissions | Advertising | Showcase | Library Subscriptions | Media Inquiries | Reviewers | Contact Us |   Email this page to a friend
addall.com - external link
Visit AddAll.com to compare and save at 41 bookstores!
Searching for used books? Search 20,000+ dealers!
 
Compare music prices  |  Compare movie prices
One Percent