Unseen City

A spinster librarian in New York City becomes obsessed with a patron and his haunted house in this novel by the author of The Mermaid of Brooklyn.

In a city teeming with stories, how do lost souls find one another? It’s a question Meg Rhys doesn’t think she’s asking. Meg is a self-identified spinster librarian, satisfied with living with her cat, stacks of books, and her dead sister’s ghost in her New York City apartment. Then she becomes obsessed with an intriguing library patron and the haunted house he’s trying to research. The house has its own story to tell too, of love and war, of racism’s fallout and the ghost story that is gentrification, and of Brooklyn before it was Brooklyn. What follows is an exploration of what home is, how we live with loss, who belongs in the city and to whom the city belongs, and the possibilities and power of love.

Praise for Unseen City

“Gripping, moving, and vital, Unseen City asks how human life might defy its lifespan—in the throes of love, the conviction of belief, and each person’s mark upon a city that will survive them. For two days, I laughed at Amy Shearn’s wry humor and gasped at her gorgeous sentences; I couldn’t put this brilliant book down until its perfect final line (and I’m haunted still—which is appropriate, I suppose)!” —Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, bestselling author of June and Bittersweet

“A ghost story that focuses not on a single spirit but on an entire city whose layered history haunts its occupants. . . . Like the ghosts who inhabit its pages, the novel lingers long after you’ve put it down.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Luminous. . . . Shearn’s nimble storytelling unearths a fascinating and fraught history.” —Publishers Weekly

“Amy Shearn’s modern fable Unseen City is anchored by smart, sly humor. It delves into the layered social, psychological, and historical architecture of New York City. . . . [It] demands calling out the names of the dead, assuring its audience that they’re ready to answer and say, “I’m here.” —Foreword Reviews