September 17: Ian Frazier—Paradise Bronx
Presented by 192 Books, Ian Frazier in conversation with Zach Helfand to discuss his new book Paradise Bronx (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024)
This event will take place in person at 192 Books at 192 10th Ave on Tuesday, September 17th at 7:00 PM ET. The event is free, with no reserved seating. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. The discussion will also be streamed directly on this page. There is no login or RSVP required. A recording will be archived.
Books will be available for sale after the conversation.
Ian Frazier—Paradise Bronx: The Life and Times of New York's Greatest Borough (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024)
For the past fifteen years, Ian Frazier has been walking the Bronx. Paradise Bronx reveals the amazingly rich and tumultuous history of this amazingly various piece of our greatest city. From Jonas Bronck, who bought land from the local Native Americans, to the formerly gang-wracked South Bronx that gave birth to hip-hop, Frazier’s loving exploration is a moving tour de force about the polyglot culture that is America today.
Frazier shows us how the coming of the railroads and the subways drove the settling of the Bronx by various waves of immigration: Irish, Italian, Jewish, African American, Caribbean, Puerto Rican. The romance of the Yankees, the disaster of the Cross Bronx Expressway, the invention of rap and hip-hop, the resurgence of community as the borough’s communities learn mutual aid—all are investigated, recounted, and celebrated in Frazier’s inimitable voice.
Photo by Sara Barrett
Ian Frazier is the author of Travels in Siberia, Great Plains, On the Rez, Lamentations of the Father, and Coyote V. Acme, among other works, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. His newest book is Paradise Bronx: The Life and Times of New York's Greatest Borough. He graduated from Harvard University. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he lives in Montclair, New Jersey.
Zach Helfand is a writer and an editor of the Talk of the Town at The New Yorker.