Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakeable Love for New York

A fine pendant piece to 2013’s Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York, this new collection brings together an impressive roster of 28 writers to share their love for a city that’s as much a way of being as a geographic coordinate. As Phillip Lopate, a native New Yorker, explains, “I was ruined in the crib for life elsewhere. The milk I drank from my mother’s breast probably contained window soot or was diluted with traces of Rheingold beer and egg creams.” The book, a playful and tender collection of love letters for an anthropomorphized city, offers up a generous dose of nostalgia and shared experiences. There are some memorable exceptions to the otherwise predictably chosen subject matter: Jon-Jon Goulian’s profile of a resistant Floridian convert and Susan Orlean’s essay on her preoccupation with papayas, to name two. Despite an air of homogeneity, the book represents a far wider range of voices than its precursor, and each writer offers a deeply personal perspective on a city shared by over 8 million. Agent: Rayhane Sanders, WSK Management LLC. (Oct.)