5 Great Books Set in New York’s East Village

Losers Live Longer, by Russell Atwood
Bringing back his downtrodden private investigator Payton Sherwood in this 2011 novel, Atwood—once Managing Editor of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine—has crafted a story that’s one part throwback to old-school detective fiction and one part detailed tour of the Lower East Side and the East Village (which were once considered one neighborhood). When Sherwood, struggling to make a living, gets tossed a case by a retired mentor, it’s salvation—until the mentor is killed in the street in front of Sherwood’s office, setting off a tense and exciting mystery that gives you all the flavors of the East Village’s less-than-savory areas. You may never experience the neighborhood the way Sherwood does, but you should be grateful for that.

Lush Life, by Richard Price
Richard Price uses his immense talent to bring the East Village and Lower East Side to grim life in this remarkable novel, often compared to Bonfire of the Vanities (and often considered the superior of the two, if the less well-known). Price uses a murder as the launching point for an examination of the East Village as a character, a force that changes and evolves throughout history along with the people who populate its sagging old buildings. Immigrants come, struggle, and leave, only to be replaced by the next wave. Price captures the fundamental rhythm of life and language on the streets of this eclectic neighborhood, masterfully turning a story of a murder into an examination of an iconic area, how it’s changed over the years—and how it’s remained exactly the same.

Ten Thousand Saints, by Eleanor Henderson
Adapted into a film starring Hailee Steinfeld and Ethan Hawke scheduled for release this year, Henderson’s novel gives us a glimpse of an East Village that no longer exists: the 1980s neighborhood where CBGB was still a vibrant force in the music world, where straight-edge kids with X’s on their hands refused to drink or do drugs while listening to hardcore punk bands, and where young people from all over the world gathered, seeking to make their own sorts of families. The past can’t be visited like a tourist spot, and our only hope for any clue as to what it might have been like to be 16 and confused and angry and living in the East Village are electric, exciting books like this one.

Astor Place Vintage, by Stephanie Lehmann
One of the most charming books you’ll ever read, Lehmann tells the story of Amanda Rosenbloom, who owns a vintage clothing store on Astor Place in the East Village. Amanda despises the gentrification of the neighborhood and the spate of modern buildings going up. When she discovers the hidden diary of Olive Westcott, who moved to New York in 1907 and struggled against sexism and other prejudices to make a life for herself, Amanda finds herself questioning her own life. The East Village is a vibrant part of this wonderful and wonderfully affecting novel, adding to its charm and giving it the heft of reality.

Just Kids, by Patti Smith
Patti Smith was born in Chicago, but the punk poet laureate evolved to become more New York than most natives, moving into the Hotel Chelsea in 1969 with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and going on to perform at CBGB, Max’s Kansas City, and other local venues. Just Kids is a love story—but the subject of Smith’s sad look back is as much the East Village itself—an East Village that no longer exists—as it is Mapplethorpe, who of course went on to achieve his own immense fame. Smith, now pushing 70, doesn’t miss a step in her fierce mastery of language, making this book an absorbing and sometimes challenging read that lets you see the East Village of the late 1960s and early ’70s through the eyes of someone who not only lived it, but more or less invented it.
Shop all fiction >