The 'Father of Greater New York' is dead. Shot outside his Park Avenue mansion in the year of our Lord, 1903. In the hour of his death, will the truth of his life finally break free?
Born to a struggling farming family in 1820, Andrew Haswell Green was a self-made man who reshaped Manhattan, built Central Park and turned New York into a modern metropolis. Now, at eighty-three, when he thought the world could hold no more surprises, he is murdered. As the detective assigned to the case traces his ghost across the city, other spectres appear: a wealthy courtesan; a broken-hearted man in a bowler hat; and an ambitious politician, Samuel, whose lifelong friendship was a source of joy and frustration.
In a life of industry and restraint, where is the space for love? As restlessly inventive and absorbing as its protagonist, The Great Mistake is the story of a city, and a singular man, transformed by longing.
Genre: Historical
Born to a struggling farming family in 1820, Andrew Haswell Green was a self-made man who reshaped Manhattan, built Central Park and turned New York into a modern metropolis. Now, at eighty-three, when he thought the world could hold no more surprises, he is murdered. As the detective assigned to the case traces his ghost across the city, other spectres appear: a wealthy courtesan; a broken-hearted man in a bowler hat; and an ambitious politician, Samuel, whose lifelong friendship was a source of joy and frustration.
In a life of industry and restraint, where is the space for love? As restlessly inventive and absorbing as its protagonist, The Great Mistake is the story of a city, and a singular man, transformed by longing.
Genre: Historical
Praise for this book
"Jonathan Lee is so enviably talented it leaves the reader breathless. The Great Mistake is an unparalleled feat of elegance and craftsmanship. Lee's 19th-century New York City is riveting, immersive, but best of all, it's an immaculate blend of scale: he masters both the grand historic narratives and gritty intimate details. As envisioned by Lee, the life of Green feels emblematic of the New York City he built: ambitious, fraught, thrilling, and ultimately visionary." - Stephanie Danler
"Jonathan Lee's wily, virtuosic, very beautiful new novel is an intimate portrait of a public man that also serves as an X-ray of America. The Great Mistake is a great novel of New York, in which the shaping of public space becomes inextricable from the loneliness, longing, and ferocious ambition of a single, damaged man." - Garth Greenwell
"A wonderful, compelling, finely-tuned and deeply loveable novel, with a central character who is all of those things too. Jonathan Lee has taken the bare facts of a nearly-forgotten life and turned them into a rich and unforgettable story, told with a relish for language and voice. Mr. Andrew Haswell Green now has permanent lodgings in my brain, and very welcome he is too." - Jon McGregor
"The Great Mistake is a great novel of 19th-century New York and the meaning of success, which makes the quietest moments of its hero's life as memorable as the bordellos and the murders. A magical escape from the 21st century that sent me back feeling wiser and more hopeful." - Sandra Newman
"Few writers working today have Jonathan Lee's range or eye for detail. Fewer still are capable of roaming minds and histories with such bittersweet, richly detailed ease, or taking on with such profound depth all the messy, hilarious, heartbreaking humanity of a person, and a time, and indeed an entire city. The Great Mistake is a wonder and a delight." - Téa Obreht
"Like Denis Johnson's Train Dreams and John Williams' Stoner, Jonathan Lee peels back a forgotten layer of history to investigate longing and loneliness in the shape of a single man. The Great Mistake joins the ranks of Sarah Perry's novels, and Colm Tóibín's The Master, in lighting up the past, recreating Old New York--like Francis Spufford's Golden Hill--with an exuberance that transcends mere history. It is a remarkable book, a herculean construction that will prove lasting." - Katy Simpson Smith
"Jonathan Lee's wily, virtuosic, very beautiful new novel is an intimate portrait of a public man that also serves as an X-ray of America. The Great Mistake is a great novel of New York, in which the shaping of public space becomes inextricable from the loneliness, longing, and ferocious ambition of a single, damaged man." - Garth Greenwell
"A wonderful, compelling, finely-tuned and deeply loveable novel, with a central character who is all of those things too. Jonathan Lee has taken the bare facts of a nearly-forgotten life and turned them into a rich and unforgettable story, told with a relish for language and voice. Mr. Andrew Haswell Green now has permanent lodgings in my brain, and very welcome he is too." - Jon McGregor
"The Great Mistake is a great novel of 19th-century New York and the meaning of success, which makes the quietest moments of its hero's life as memorable as the bordellos and the murders. A magical escape from the 21st century that sent me back feeling wiser and more hopeful." - Sandra Newman
"Few writers working today have Jonathan Lee's range or eye for detail. Fewer still are capable of roaming minds and histories with such bittersweet, richly detailed ease, or taking on with such profound depth all the messy, hilarious, heartbreaking humanity of a person, and a time, and indeed an entire city. The Great Mistake is a wonder and a delight." - Téa Obreht
"Like Denis Johnson's Train Dreams and John Williams' Stoner, Jonathan Lee peels back a forgotten layer of history to investigate longing and loneliness in the shape of a single man. The Great Mistake joins the ranks of Sarah Perry's novels, and Colm Tóibín's The Master, in lighting up the past, recreating Old New York--like Francis Spufford's Golden Hill--with an exuberance that transcends mere history. It is a remarkable book, a herculean construction that will prove lasting." - Katy Simpson Smith
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