The Night Shift: A Novel

by Natalka Burian

Overview

"The Night Shift is an engrossing and vibrant novel, and I loved watching my fair city shine in these pages. This is a great book for readers who love New York City after dark, and who see mysterious possibilities around every corner."
— Emma Straub, New York Times Bestselling Author of All Adults Here

Only by traveling into the past can Jean discover a happy future…

Hidden behind back doors of bars and restaurants and theaters and shops all over New York City are shortcuts—secret passageways that allow you to jump through time and space to emerge in different parts of the city. No one knows where they came from, but there are rules—you can only travel through them one way and only at night.

When Jean’s work friend Iggy introduces her to the shortcuts, it’s to help shorten her commute between her night shifts bartending and her work at an upscale bakery. Jean is intrigued but has a hard time shaking the side effects—the shortcuts make her more talkative, more open to discussing her past and recalling memories she’s tried hard to forget.

When Iggy goes missing, Jean believes it’s related to the shortcuts and his growing obsession with them. But as she starts digging into their origins, she comes to find a strange connection between herself and the shortcuts. A shimmering, propulsive novel set in New York City during the early aughts and across time, The Night Shift shows that by confronting the past can we reshape our future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780778333043
Publisher:	Park Row Books
Publication date:	07/12/2022
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	661,246
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Natalka Burian is the cofounder of the Freya Project, a nonprofit reading series that supports community-based activism and the work of women and nonbinary writers. She is the author of Welcome to the Slipstream, a young adult book, and the cocktail cookbook A Woman’s Drink, and is the co-owner of two bars, Elsa and Ramona.

Editorial Reviews

04/04/2022

Burian (Daughters of the Wild) sets this captivating, detail-rich speculative novel in early 2000s New York City, where heroine Jean operates on a simple principle: when someone gets too close, run. And run she does when her psychotherapist boss asks one too many questions about her history, leaving behind a job she loves to sling beers at the Red and Gold bar. Desperate to escape her past, she’s uncomfortable discussing her parents’ deaths and the accident that stripped her of her passion for running, and she does all she can to avoid seeming like friend material. Still, she’s quickly charmed by her musician coworker, Iggy, who introduces Jean to “shortcuts,” mysterious fixed doorways through time and space—and shortly thereafter, he disappears. Despite her determination not to get involved, Jean’s drawn into Iggy’s disappearance and its link to the impossible shortcuts—and through investigating, she’s forced to face what she fears most. Blending women’s and speculative fiction, Burian draws readers along on Jean’s emotional path toward self-discovery and deeper understanding of the world around her. The vivid descriptions of New York bring the city to life, creating a character just as palpable as the others. Readers will be hooked. Agent: Kate Johnson, Wolf Literary. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"The Night Shift is an engrossing and vibrant novel, and I loved watching my fair city shine in these pages. This is a great book for readers who love New York City after dark, and who see mysterious possibilities around every corner." —Emma Straub, New York Times Bestselling Author of All Adults Here

"A wildly imaginative and utterly addictive novel that had me eagerly turning pages late into the night. Natalka Burian's clever concept of an NYC peppered with mysterious shortcuts lays the foundation for a propulsive story which also offers a thoughtful examination of self-preservation, vulnerability, and human connection." —Margarita Montimore, USA Today bestselling author of Oona Out of Order

"Full of luster and heart, The Night Shift swept me into its labyrinth from the moment Jean Smith stepped into her first shortcut through New York City. This novel is a triple threat: a time-traveling rhapsody, an homage to found family, and an anthem for the night owl. In short, a total treat from beginning to end." —Amy Jo Burns, author of Shiner

“Natalka Burian is inviting you on the adventure of a lifetime. A wild heartbeat of a book that takes unexpected turns—literally and emotionally—and lands us in a newly discovered world of a beloved city, yes, but also a newly discovered world of ourselves. I was so impressed by the human connections on the page, and will think back often to this cast of characters as if they are friends of my own. We are lucky to have such a story.” —Chelsea Bieker, author of Godshot and Heartbroke

“The Night Shift is a fabulously strange and wondrous novel. Original, surreal, and thoroughly suspenseful, Natalka Burian takes you on a journey through New York and a world of magical shortcuts tucked within its streets, and creates a world both fantastic and unsettlingly familiar. It absorbed me completely.” —Annie Hartnett, author of Unlikely Animals

“A twisty, cinematic romp through space, time, and early aughts New York, The Night Shift is made to binge-read.” —Kyle Lucia Wu, author of Win Me Something

“The Night Shift is an achingly compelling look at memory, resiliency, hope, and hustle. Burian weaves a whole new New York City—magical, strange, and free from the everyday trappings of time and space—but this story is resonant and timeless, a bittersweet beauty by a fantastically talented writer.” —Kimberly King Parsons, author of Black Light

“Burian explores the gritty underground of New York City in this ambitious novel… fans of classic alternate-history novels like Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter and Stephen King’s 11/22/63 will devour this one.” —Booklist, Starred Review

From the Publisher