Our Take

Ghosts of New York is an ambitious, formally adventurous novel that demands patience and rewards close attention. Jim Lewis, whose work the New York Times called "a rare talent," creates a New York where time folds in on itself and characters' lives intersect in ways that feel both inevitable and mysterious. This isn't a straightforward narrative—it's a mosaic that requires readers to trust the connections will emerge. What makes the novel exceptional is Lewis's ability to render specific New York spaces with such sensory precision that they become characters themselves. The bars, studios, and street corners feel alive with history and possibility. The speculative elements are subtle rather than flashy—time doesn't so much break as bend, allowing past and present to coexist. The prose is lyrical without being precious, grounded in the physical reality of the city even as it gestures toward something more ethereal. The recurring song serves as a kind of musical through-line, connecting disparate moments and people across decades. This is a novel for readers who appreciate formally innovative fiction and aren't looking for conventional plot resolution. Fans of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell or Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders will recognize similar ambitions here. Ghosts of New York is a love letter to the city and to the way art, music, and place shape the people who move through them—essential reading for anyone interested in experimental urban fiction.