Paradise Alley » (P.S. Insights, Interviews & More)

Kevin Baker is the bestselling author of the novels Dreamland, Paradise Alley, and Sometimes You See It Coming. He is a columnist for American Heritage magazine and a regular contributor to the New York Times, Harper's, and other periodicals. He lives in New York City with his wife, the writer Ellen Abrams, and their cat, Stella.

Three remarkable women have nothing but one another to rely on as they seek to protect their homes and families from the brutality of a city -- and a nation -- gone mad.

The New Yorker

This follow-up to "Dreamland," Baker's 1999 novel about Coney Island, is both an example of his talents as a historian and, occasionally, a warning about the power of facts to upend the delicate balance of fiction. With painstaking accuracy, the author re-creates the 1863 Draft Riots, in which President Lincoln's announcement of a new conscription law provoked thousands of New Yorkers, primarily Irish immigrants, to rampage through the city, looting and murdering. The principal characters, a trio of working-class women, furnish a rich domestic perspective that complements the public record. Unfortunately, Baker's liberal use of other voices -- including those of a reporter, a thug, and a fireman -- ultimately proves distracting.