City on Fire

Looks as if it might be the most propulsive New York novel since Bonfire of the Vanities.

Jesse Armstrong, Guardian

The kind of debut novel that only comes around once every 20 years or so – one that everyone who's read it roots for...[An] edge-of-your-seat epic, which is as tightly told as it is ambitious.

Elle

This magnificent first novel is full to bursting with plot, character, and emotion, all set within the exquisitely grungy 1970s New York City...Graceful in execution, hugely entertaining, and most concerned with the longing for connection, a theme that reaches full realization during the blackout of 1977, this epic is both a compelling mystery and a literary tour de force.

Booklist (starred)

The very-damn-good American novel.

Kirkus Reviews (starred)

His New York City is ablaze, with fireworks, trashcan infernos and the burning Bronx.

Sarah Begley, Time Magazine

A vivid immersive novel.

Kate Tuttle, Boston Globe Sunday

An epic of New York…a kind of punk Bleak House.

Vogue

City on Fire is the kind of exuberant, Zeitgeisty New York novel, like The Bonfire of the Vanities or The Goldfinch, that you’ll either love, hate, or pretend to have read

Vogue

Gunshots ring out in New York’s Central Park. Various colourful characters revolve around this event, their lives interlocking. Don’t be put off by its length. It’s sprawling, brilliant and all-consuming – I couldn’t put it down.

Fanny Blake, Woman and Home

A big, stunning first novel and an amazing virtual reality machine, whisking us back to New York City in the 1970s … It’s a novel of head-snapping ambition and heart-stopping power – a novel that attests to its young author’s boundless and unflagging talents.

Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

City on Fire is an extraordinary performance. Radiating youthful bravado that will make older authors sniff with contempt (or sweat with envy), Hallberg has conjured what he calls the "muchness" of New York City in the late 1970s … A novel whose Whitmanesque arms embrace an entire city of lovers and strivers, saints and killers … Dazzling

Ron Charles, Washington Post

[Hallberg conjures] a pulsing metropolis out of legend, lyrical prose, studious imitation, and the thrilling arrogance of imagination … City on Fire is a novel of connection, forgiveness, and empathy

A.O. Scott

Clocks in at a cool 944 pages, but we breezed through it in no time. It’s the story of a shooting in Central Park and its effect on ‘70s New York – the city’s scuzzy, punky peak.

FHM

A fantastic achievement; mesmerising, addictive in a way that a book this long really shouldn’t be, and full of intrigue. Hallberg’s writing is clear, insightful, and accessible; for all that it runs to almost 1,000 pages, each sentence has been crafted just so.

Running in Heels

Glitzy, gritty storytelling.

The Debrief

An outstanding novel… what an accomplishment.

James Treltsch, The Skinny

Ambitious and assured – and stunningly good.

Good Housekeeping

It’s been a while since a debut novel received as much pre-publication scrutiny as City on Fire… It happens that the hype wasn’t for nothing… Hallberg writes with style and sophistication about everything from urban decay and punk rock to domestic terrorism and the dissolution of the nuclear family, seamlessly melding disparate character arcs, and deploying a host of storytelling modes in the process… Those who commit will come away with the bracing sense that they’ve discovered a writer of immense talent, confidence and self-awareness… It’s exciting to see a writer start his career with such an extravagant display of talent and assurance, and pleasing to learn that behind all the hype, there’s a tremendous amount of substance. Hallberg’s going to be fun to follow for a long time.

Kevin Canfield, San Francisco Chronicle

It’s a big ask to give up a week of your reading life to an unknown guy from North Carolina whose middle name is Risk. However, then you start reading this classic thriller set in the graffiti-splashed 1970s New York, about a girl called Sam being shot in Central Park, and it’s immediately apparent that here is a writer who knows how to do suspense. You’re soon zipping through Hallberg’s vividly realised New York like a child discovering Hogwarts for the first time.

The Times

Extraordinary…dazzling… a sprawling, generous, warm-hearted epic of 1970s New York

Observer

An American epic…But don’t wait for the movie. There’s writing here that’s too good to miss.

Diana Hendry, Spectator