Christodora: A Novel

By Tim Murphy

In this vivid and compelling novel, Tim Murphy follows a diverse set of characters whose fates intertwine in an iconic building in Manhattan’s East Village, the Christodora. The Christodora is home to Milly and Jared, a privileged young couple with artistic ambitions. Their neighbor, Hector, a Puerto Rican gay man who was once a celebrated AIDS activist but is now a lonely addict, becomes connected to Milly and Jared’s lives in ways none of them can anticipate. Meanwhile, Milly and Jared’s adopted son Mateo grows to see the opportunity for both self-realization and oblivion that New York offers. As the junkies and protestors of the 1980s give way to the hipsters of the 2000s and they, in turn, to the wealthy residents of the crowded, glass-towered city of the 2020s, enormous changes rock the personal lives of Milly and Jared and the constellation of people around them. Moving kaleidoscopically from the Tompkins Square Riots and attempts by activists to galvanize a true response to the AIDS epidemic, to the New York City of the future, Christodora recounts the heartbreak wrought by AIDS, illustrates the allure and destructive power of hard drugs, and brings to life the ever-changing city itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Release date: Aug 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9780802190437

Tim Murphy

Tim Murphy is the author of Correspondents. His novel Christodora was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. He has reported on health, politics, and culture for twenty years, for such publications as POZ Magazine, where he was an editor and staff writer, Out, the New York Times, and New York. He lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews for Christodora

[bearlyr · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There is something for everyone here, plenty of characters to love, hate, dislike, respect, pity, and fell disdain for. The Christadora, an old building in the East Village, plays an integral part in many lives. It's a story of AIDS, drugs, sex, heartbreak... well really it's simply a story of life with all it's ups and downs. We get a quasi insiders look into life in New York City, while also touching life in Los Angeles as well. It's quite well written, draws you in, and forces you to care about the lives of these diverse characters.

[bostonseanachie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an epic history of some of the residents of an East Village building known as the Christadora superimposed on some of the historical events that constituted the American reaction (or, in the case of the government, lack thereof) to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Its non-linear narrative jumps around from various time frames from the 80s through 2021 and it is narrated by at least half a dozen distinct characters.

Murphy does an outstanding job slow-building empathy for the characters, many of whom are bundles of bad choices resulting in terrible consequences. Central to the story is a pair of (secular) Jewish East Village artists married to one another who adopt the child of a Latina AIDS activist, who dies from complications arising from HIV/AIDS. The child proves to be an artist in his own right, but in his teenage years rebels against his parents and ultimate becomes a heroin addict--destroying many lives on the way. This child's finding his way as an adult to a kind of redemption and amends-making -- however incomplete -- is the main thrust of the story.

If Murphy's novel suffers from a defect, it is that some of the storytelling seems to have been shaped to fit the HIV/AIDS history, instead of growing organically from the characters. For the most part, though, these maddening characters manage to carry the narrative forward, and Murphy does not fall prey to the need to wrap up all the loose ends.

[Ammar Hassan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a good book.A novel of great scope and ambition,