All City

(Paperback)

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In a near-future New York City in which both global warming and a tremendous economic divide are making the city unlivable for many, a huge superstorm hits leaving behind only those those who had nowhere else to go and no way to get out. Here Makayla, a 24-year-old woman who works at the convenience store chain that's overtaken the city, and Jesse, a 18-year-old genderqueer anarchist punk who lives in an abandoned IRT station in the Bronx, and an unnamed, mysterious street artist who paints the suffering of those left behind into the world's consciousness, all struggle to rebuild their lives in a city that has left them for dead. When they carve out a small space of reprieve from an abandoned luxury condo, it is only a matter of time before those who own the building come back to claim what is theirs. All City is more than a novel, it's a foreshadowing of a world to come.

Reviews

"This loving, grieving warning thoughtfully traces the resilience, fragility, and joy of precarious communities in an immediate, compassionate voice."Publishers Weekly

"The novel is a very astute critique of wealth disparity ...nimble prose and complex characters, which feel shockingly familiar."Lambda Literary

"Alex DiFrancesco'sAll Citywalks a razored line between hope and hopelessness, never forgetting that only a few are privileged to have a surfeit of the former. This is a harrowing and powerful love letter to a city on the edge of a slow apocalypse, and to the people that cityand the worldthreatens to leave behind as it moves against the rising tide of an uncertain future." Indra Das, author ofThe Devourers

"Alex DiFrancesco'sAll Cityprovides a vivid, all-too-realistic glimpse into our climate-change future. Portraying the best and worst of what makes us human, the novel celebrates community-building, survival, and the possibility of hope, while criticizing the institutions that actively work to divide us. It is a rallying cry worth echoing." Ilana Masad, author ofAll My Mother's Lovers

"At last, a future New York novel with heart and heft. A hammer blow aimed at the present and its shiny display of bougie hipster climate capitalism. Read it!" Siddhartha Deb, author ofThe Beautiful and the Damned

"A fiercely empathetic tour of a disaster most of us dont realize is already here,All Cityis a novel everyone concerned about the health and survival of our cities must read." William Shunn, author ofThe Accidental Terrorist

"The novel hits close to home, with a cast of characters who respond by producing a little utopia, amid a lot of dystopia, as they navigate the water, the chaos, and their relationships. Survival swirls together with loss, giving readers coldand clammycomfort." Alexandra Chasin, author ofAssassin of Youth: A Kaleidoscopic History of Harry J. Anslinger's War on Drugs

"I was mesmerized by this story about the tragic collision of global warming and capitalism, and how love creeps in to sustain and nurture, even when it's been reduced to a memory."Mary Adkins, author ofWhen You Read This

"Alex DiFrancesos new book is set in the near future, but some may find it a bit too near for comfort. After New York City is devastated by climate change, gentrification and capitalism and then engulfed by a superstorm, several survivors, including genderqueer anarchist Jesse and convenience store worker Makayla, try to make their way in this new realitywhich could be our own sooner than we realize if we dont heed this warning."Ms. Magazine

Author Bio

Alex DiFrancesco has published fiction in The Carolina Quarterly, The New Ohio Review, and Monkeybicycle. They are a winner of Sundress Academy for the Arts' 2017 OutSpoken contest for LGBTQ+ writing. DiFrancesco's non-fiction has appeared in The Washington Post, Tin House, Longreads, Brevity, and was a finalist in Cosmonauts Avenue's inaugural non-fiction prize. Their storytelling has been featured at The Fringe Festival, Life of the Law, The Queens Book Festival, and The Heart podcast. DiFrancesco is also a skilled bread baker and pastry cook, a passionate activist and advocate, and has a small, wonderful cat named Sylvia Rivera-Katz.