I’ve neglected my blog for too long. That is not to say that I haven’t been relishing a delicious work of historical fiction: New York: the novel by Edward Rutherfurd.

As I read I was held captive by the engrossing saga of the events that shaped the city of New York. Rutherfurd’s style of relating the political and cultural development of a place through the lives of families captures the imagination and breathes life into his history lessons. He incorporates the tales of rich and poor, Native American, African, and European folk from the first Dutch settlers on into the 21^st century. It might be a good idea if all New York high school students were assigned this book as required reading. I daresay that their interest in the history and the future of their city would be nurtured far better than through their history textbooks.

On the downside of this experience, I discovered at the conclusion of this audiobook version that I had been listening to the abridged edition. That would certainly explain the leaps in time and the confusion I had felt between chapters when trying to pick up the threads of the story. Now I need to get hold of the complete book… and also add more of Rutherfurd’s novels to my reading list.