Become a Brooklyn Expert by Reading These 10 Essential Books

With so many Brooklyn books out there, it’s hard to know where to begin. To help you out, the Daily Traveler has picked 10 essential reads, including:

1. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; Betty Smith (1943): The book title that launched a thousand clichés. It tells the story of a Williamsburg’s early immigrants.

2. Last Exit to Brooklyn; Hubert Selby, Jr. (1964): Brutal and pulpy. A compelling tale of the shipyards that provides a “bitter counterpoint” to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

3. Desperate Characters; Paula Fox (1970): A novel populated by Brooklyn’s “first gentrifier-intellectuals.”

4. Ghosts; Paul Auster (1986): The moody second book in Auster’s New York Trilogy uses Brooklyn Heights as a backdrop.

5. Fortress of Solitude; Jonathan Lethem (2003): the semi-autobiographical novel mixes science fiction with life growing in the white minority in Boerum Hill (then, North Gowanus).

Get the full list of 10 essential reads: 10 Essential Books About Brooklyn : Daily Traveler : Conde Nast Traveler.