Pete Hamill Reading

Wednesday | July 25, 2007 at 6pm

Lower East side Tenement Museum
108 Orchard St. (at Broome St.)
212-982-8420

North River by Pete Hamill

It is 1934, and New York City is in the icy grip of the Great Depression. With enormous compassion, Dr. James Delaney tends to his hurt, sick, and poor neighbors, who include gangsters, day laborers, prostitutes, and housewives. If they can't pay, he treats them anyway.

But in his own life, Delaney is emotionally numb, haunted by the slaughters of the Great War. His only daughter has left for Mexico, and his wife Molly vanished months before, leaving him to wonder if she is alive or dead. Then, on a snowy New Years Day, the doctor returns home to find his three-year-old grandson on his doorstep, left by his mother in Delaney's care.

Recreating 1930s New York with the vibrancy and rich detail that are his trademarks, Pete Hamill weaves a story of honor, family, and one mans simple courage that no reader will soon forget.