City of Margins

Written by William Boyle

Narrated by Charlie Kevin

In City of Margins, the lives of several lost souls intersect in Southern Brooklyn in the early 1990s. There’s Donnie Parascandolo, a disgraced ex-cop with blood on his hands; Ava Bifulco, a widow whose daily work grind is her whole life; Nick, Ava’s son, a grubby high school teacher who dreams of a shortcut to success; Mikey Baldini, a college dropout who’s returned to the old neighborhood, purposeless and drifting; Donna Rotante, Donnie’s ex-wife, still reeling from the suicide of their teenage son; Mikey’s mother, Rosemarie, also a widow, who hopes Mikey won’t fall into the trap of strong arm work; and Antonina Divino, a high school girl with designs on breaking free from Brooklyn. Uniting them are the dead: Mikey’s old man, killed over a gambling debt, and Donnie and Donna’s poor son, Gabe.

These characters cross paths in unexpected ways, guided by coincidence and the pull of blood. There are new things to be found in the rubble of their lives, too. The promise of something different beyond the barriers that have been set out for them. This is a story of revenge and retribution, of facing down the ghosts of the past, of untold desires, of yearning and forgiveness and synchronicity, of the great distance of lives lived in dangerous proximity to each other. City of Margins is a Technicolor noir melodrama pieced together in broken glass.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Everand Productions
• Release date: Dec 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781094435992

William Boyle

William Boyle is from Brooklyn, New York. His novels include: Gravesend, which was nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France; The Lonely Witness, which was nominated for the Hammett Prize and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière; A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself, an Amazon Best Book of the Year; and, most recently, City of Margins, a Washington Post Best Thriller and Mystery Book of 2020. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

Reviews for City of Margins

[memechel · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very authentic in all aspects - the story, lines, jokes, culture, coloquialisms just so NYC! I loved it.

[Cinda · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very entertaining. Good story. Good writing. Good narration. Kept me listening right to the end.

[Seema Sura · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic narration. Plot kept me entertained throughout the book. Enjoyed the many characters

[thomaspluck · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A more ranging Brooklyn Italian ensemble than his debut novel Gravesend, this one leavens the fatalism with a few very funny tragic characters, and is the better for it. (I love Gravesend, but love this one even more)