The City of Comrades

Frank Melbury has hit every bottom there is. He's slept in doorways, drained bottle after bottle, and watched the city walk past him like he was part of the pavement. But when a chance encounter with an eccentric stranger named Lovey cracks open something he thought was forever sealed shut, Frank makes a choice: one last, desperate attempt at sobriety. The Down and Out Mission offers a bed, but it's Lovey's stubborn faith in him that offers something harder to find - a reason to stay alive. Basil King writes with brutal tenderness about the streets of early 20th century New York, where the cold is indifferent and redemption comes only to those stubborn enough to reach for it. This is no inspirational tract about conquering addiction; it's a gritty, unsentimental portrait of what it costs to rebuild yourself from nothing, and the unlikely strangers who hand you the first brick.