"A reader may find herself wondering (as I did) what lengths McClanahan will go to save a squirrel trapped outside her apartment window, what she might learn when a very odd duck sits next to her on a city bench and strikes up a conversation, and how, as a newcomer to the city, she will fathom the destruction of the World Trade Center. This marvelous book is a treasure chest of wisdom and humility and humor and discovery. I read it in one sitting. So will you."

—Abigail Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of A Three Dog Life and Safekeeping

Having uprooted their lives in North Carolina to pursue a long-held dream of living in Manhattan, Rebecca and her husband struggle to find jobs, forge friendships, and create a home in a city of strangers. The 9/11 attacks and a serious cancer surgery complicate their story, merging the public with the private, the present with the past, to shape a journey richer than either could have imagined.

Published by Red Hen Press ISBN: 978-1-59709-850-2 (paperback)

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(All royalties will be donated to Second Harvest Food Bank)

MORE PRAISE

"How brilliantly Rebecca McClanahan marries New York to the country of her life and imagination, thus recreating the city. One lives with her in this beautifully-wrought memoir as one lives in a New York apartment--hearing the neighbors breathe, inhaling the tense air, scanning the prairies of the streets, and greeting the mysteries of strangers. It's no easy feat to make New York new. McClanahan does it wondrously."
—Roger Rosenblatt, New York Times bestselling author of Making Toast and The Boy Detective: A New York Childhood

REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS

• Review in Kenyon Review by Amy Wright "The tune, though, is not of New York City alone; it is the siren song of human nature. It is a homecoming hymn for a home that is always changing."
• Review in River Teeth Journal by Tarn Wilson "Connection alone can't halt death or suffering, her essays tell us, but we can offer, and receive—even in the most unlikely circumstances—tenderness and respect."
• Review in Brevity's Non-Fiction Blog by Vivian Wagner "If at first McClanahan feels like she doesn't belong in the city, over time she comes to see that everyone there is connected, and everyone has a role to play, a story to tell, a song to sing."
• Review in PANK magazine by Cate Hodorowicz "Rebecca McClanahan offers a timeless portrait of New York's contradictions, which is to say, it provides a salve to the upheaval of now and acts as a reminder of the city's constancy throughout tribulations."

• Interview with Nancy Geyer, Brevity Magazine
On the soundtrack of New York City, Central Park benches, 9/11, and how time has its way with places as well as with us.
• Interview with Julie Marie Wade for The Rumpus
We talked about collective heartbreak, cancer, 9/11 and the unpredictability of our lives, but also about the joys of dancing, gardening, single malt scotch, and the fun of imagining our dream jobs.
• Interview with Lara Lillibridge, Hippocampus
On balancing joy and sorrow, trusting your reader, the music of sentences, and violent revisions.
• Interview with Jennifer Anderson, Talking River Review We talk about our lives as sublets, how the smallest things can ambush us, and the horror of hearing someone shout, "Go back where you came from!"
• Interview with Sydney Elliot, SOUNDINGS magazine on writing about difficult subjects and how life interrupts the memoir.