New York

This gem of a collection by Clarke celebrates the art, passions, and people of New York City. After a brief, sweet look at inadvertent eavesdropping on mass transit and the kindness of strangers in “Everyone in L.A.,” Clarke begins in earnest with “The High Line.” He uses this uniquely New York landmark as the linchpin of connections between the robustly American New York and the New York that is a microcosm of the world, in this case bringing together corporate lawyer A. Pollard O’Rourke and the Dominican-American former goatherd Eshu Basoalto. Each story that follows is suffused with love of one form or another, whether it be romance or deep-felt caring for others. Art, too, fills these pages, ranging from the delicious but simple culinary creations in “The Sandwich” to abstract sculpture in “Thank You, Pierre-Auguste.” War is also a theme throughout: it shatters the lives of characters as different as Coptic Egyptian sandwich maker Muhammad, Argentine banker Romero Heflin, and photographer Bouquet Alonso. There are no weak stories here. (BookLife)