List of books set in New York City

Books for adults

Nineteenth century

1800s

• A History of New York - Washington Irving

  1860s

• Ragged Dick - Horatio Alger

  1880s

• Washington Square - Henry James
• A Hazard of New Fortunes - William Dean Howells

  1890s

• ' - Stephen Crane
• ' - Abraham Cahan

  Twentieth century

1900s

• The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
• The Melting Pot - Israel Zangwill
• Ashes of Roses - Mary Jane Auch
• The Custom of the Country - Edith Wharton
• The Rise of David Levinsky - Abraham Cahan

  1920s

• The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
• The Beautiful and Damned - F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Old New York - Edith Wharton
• Bread Givers - Anzia Yezierska
• The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Manhattan Transfer - John Dos Passos
• The Island Within - Ludwig Lewisohn
• Plum Bun - Jessie Redmon Fauset

  1930s

• Jews Without Money - Michael Gold
• Doc Savage pulp fiction series - Kenneth Robeson
• Miss Lonelyhearts - Nathanael West
• Call It Sleep - Henry Roth
• The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett
• Turn, Magic Wheel - Dawn Powell

  1940s

• The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
• Laura - Vera Caspary
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
• The Big Clock - Kenneth Fearing
• The Deadly Percheron - John Franklin Bardin
• The Street - Ann Petry
• Three Bedrooms in Manhattan - Georges Simenon
• East Side, West Side - Marcia Davenport
• I, the Jury - Mickey Spillane
• The Last of Phillip Banter - John Franklin Bardin
• The Victim - Saul Bellow
• Consider Her Ways'' - Frederick Philip Grove

  1950s

• The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk
• The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger
• A Walker in the City - Alfred Kazin
• Go - John Clellon Holmes
• Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison
• The Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov
• Go Tell It On The Mountain - James Baldwin
• Cities in Flight - James Blish
• Marjorie Morningstar - Herman Wouk
• Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
• Bunny Lake Is Missing - Merriam Modell
• Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote
• Brown Girl, Brownstones - Paule Marshall

  1960s

• Franny and Zooey - J. D. Salinger
• Another Country - James Baldwin
• The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
• The Group - Mary McCarthy
• Joy in the Morning - Betty Smith
• - J. D. Salinger
• Joe Gould's Secret - Joseph Mitchell
• Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby
• Brendan Behan's New York - Brendan Behan
• A Singular Man - J. P. Donleavy
• An American Dream - Norman Mailer
• The Doorbell Rang - Rex Stout
• The Fortunate Pilgrim - Mario Puzo
• Make Room! Make Room! - Harry Harrison
• A Queer Kind of Death - George Baxt
• The Butterfly Kid - Chester Anderson
• The Chosen - Chaim Potok
• Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin
• Swing Low, Sweet Harriet - George Baxt
• Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone James Baldwin
• My Sister Eileen - Ruth McKenney
• The Godfather - Mario Puzo
• Topsy and Evil - George Baxt

  1970s

• Desperate Characters - Paula Fox
• Mr. Sammler's Planet - Saul Bellow
• Time and Again - Jack Finney
• Enemies - Isaac Bashevis Singer
• Umbrella Steps - Julie Goldsmith Gilbert
• A Bomb Built in Hell - Andrew Vachss
• A Fairytale of New York - J. P. Donleavy
• Great Jones Street - Don DeLillo
• Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York - Gail Parent
• The Taking of Pelham One Two Three - Morton Freedgood
• Looking for Mr. Goodbar - Judith Rossner
• Sophie's Choice - William Styron
• Players - Don DeLillo
• A Contract with God - Will Eisner
• Dancer from the Dance - Andrew Holleran
• Faggots - Larry Kramer
• Happy All the Time - Laurie Colwin
• The Stand - Stephen King

  1980s

• ' - Annie Lanzillotto
• ' - Stephen King
• Last Angry Man - Gerald Green
• Winter's Tale - Mark Helprin
• Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney
• Duplicate Keys - Jane Smiley
• Neuromancer - William Ford Gibson
• Banana Fish - Akimi Yoshida
• Blood Music - Greg Bear
• Flood - Andrew Vachss
• The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster
• The Bachelor's Bride - Stephen Koch
• Dreams of an Average Man -Dyan Sheldon
• Money - Martin Amis
• Social Disease - Paul Rudnick
• War Cries Over Avenue C - Jerome Charyn
• The Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe
• - Stephen King
• Ice and Fire - Andrea Dworkin
• Knight Life - Peter David
• Paradise Man - Jerome Charyn
• Stars and Bars - William Boyd
• Strega - Andrew Vachss
• The Year of Silence - Madison Smartt Bell
• Blue Belle - Andrew Vachss
• People Like Us - Dominick Dunne
• The Crazy Kill - Chester Himes
• Emma Who Saved My Life - Wilton Barnhardt
• A Fairy Tale of New York - J.P. Donleavy
• Hard Candy - Andrew Vachss
• I Pass Like Night'' - Jonathan Ames

  1990s

• Billy Bathgate - E.L. Doctorow
• Children of the Night - Mercedes Lackey
• A Home at the End of the World - Michael Cunningham
• The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love - Oscar Hijuelos
• Moon Palace - Paul Auster
• Our House in the Last World - Oscar Hijuelos
• Skinny Legs and All - Tom Robbins
• Aftershock - Chuck Scarborough
• American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
• Day of Atonement - Faye Kellerman
• Sacrifice - Andrew Vachss
• Sliver - Ira Levin
• The Blindfold - Siri Hustvedt
• The First Wives Club - Olivia Goldsmith
• Good Fairies of New York - Martin Millar
• Sweet Liar - Jude Deveraux
• The Kaisho - Eric Lustbader
• A Mother's Love - Mary Morris
• Nude Men - Amanda Filipacchi
• Closing Time - Joseph Heller
• Down in the Zero - Andrew Vachss
• A Feather on the Breath of God - Sigrid Nunez
• Just Like That - Lily Brett
• The Alienist - Caleb Carr
• Footsteps of the Hawk - Andrew Vachss
• Full Stop - Joan Smith
• The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms - J. P. Donleavy
• One Coffee With - Margaret Maron
• World's Fair - E.L. Doctorow
• The Book of Night with Moon - Diane Duane
• A History of Violence - John Wagner
• Lives of the Monster Dogs - Kirsten Bakis
• - Steven Millhauser
• Sewer, Gas and Electric - Matt Ruff
• Sex and the City - Candace Bushnell
• Snow in August - Pete Hamill
• Underworld - Don DeLillo
• The Waterworks - E.L. Doctorow
• Always Hiding - Sophia G. Romero
• Bringing Out The Dead - Joe Connelly
• The Extra Man - Jonathan Ames
• The Hours - Michael Cunningham
• Last Days of Summer - Steve Kluger
• Of Kings and Planets - Ethan Canin
• Safe House - Andrew Vachss
• The Willow Tree - Hubert Selby, Jr.
• Wrong Information is being Given Out at Princeton - J. P. Donleavy
• The Broken Hearts Club - Ethan Black
• Choice of Evil - Andrew Vachss
• Downsiders - Neal Shusterman
• Glamorama - Bret Easton Ellis
• Liberty Falling - Nevada Barr
• Morningside Heights - Cheryl Mendelson
• Motherless Brooklyn - Jonathan Lethem
• The Silk Code - Paul Levinson
• Vapor - Amanda Filipacchi
• Murder on Astor Place - Victoria Thompson

  Twenty-first century

2000s

• The 25th Hour - David Benioff
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
• Bodega Dreams - Ernesto Quiñonez
• City of God - E. L. Doctorow
• Killing Time - Caleb Carr
• Minor Miracles - Will Eisner
• Murder in Central Park - Michael Jahn
• The Night Inspector - Frederick Busch
• The Princess Diaries - Meg Cabot
• Redemption Song - Bertice Berry
• The Toy Collector - James Gunn
• About the Author - John Colapinto
• Bad Connection - Michael Ledwidge
• Black Water Transit - Carsten Stroud
• Borrowed Tides - Paul Levinson
• Box Office Poison - Alex Robinson
• Clara Callan - Richard B. Wright
• The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
• Fixer Chao - Han Ong
• The Foreigner - Meg Castaldo
• The Fourth Angel -Suzanne Chazin
• Going, Going, Gone - Jack Womack
• The Good People of New York - Thisbe Nissen
• The Grand Complication - Allen Kurzweil
• The Haunting of Hip Hop - Bertice Berry
• Hell's Kitchen - Chris Niles
• High Maintenance - Jennifer Belle
• The Hum Bug - Harold Schechter
• Jeremy Thrane - Kate Christensen
• Kissing in Manhattan - David Schickler
• Look at Me - Jennifer Egan
• Lucky Us - Joan Silber
• The Manhattan Hunt Club - John Saul
• Murphy's Law - Rhys Bowen
• Rivington Street - Meredith Tax
• Saturn's Return to New York - Sara Gran
• Shooting Dr. Jack - Norman Green
• Absolute Rage - Robert K. Tanenbaum
• The Consciousness Plague - Paul Levinson
• Death of Riley - Rhys Bowen
• Disturbing the Peace - Nancy Newman
• Dreamland - Kevin Baker
• The Nanny Diaries - Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
• The Navigator of New York - Wayne Johnston
• Only Child - Andrew Vachss
• Paradise Alley - Kevin Baker
• Pipsqueak - Brian Wiprud
• Save Karyn - Karyn Bosnak
• Shopaholic Takes Manhattan - Sophie Kinsella
• The Tea Rose - Jennifer Donally
• Three Junes - Julia Glass
• The Anniversary - Amy Gutman
• The Fortress Of Solitude Jonathan Lethem
• Carrie Pilby - Caren Lissner
• Cosmopolis - Don DeLillo
• Dead for Life - Ethan Black
• The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
• For the Love of Mike - Rhys Bowen
• For Matrimonial Purposes - Kavita Daswani
• Forever - Pete Hamill
• The Furies - Fernanda Eberstadt
• Hex - Maggie Estep
• Imitation in Death - J.D. Robb
• A Killing Gift - Leslie Glass
• Kunma - Frank Corsaro
• The Last Good Day - Peter Blauner
• Love Me - Garrison Keillor
• Lucia, Lucia - Adriana Trigiani
• Moral Hazard - Kate Jennings
• The Name of the Game - Will Eisner
• Oracle Night - Paul Auster
• Pattern Recognition - William Ford Gibson
• The Pixel Eye - Paul Levinson
• The Quality of Life Report - Meghan Daum
• Sheet Music - M. J. Rose
• Shopaholic Ties the Knot - Sophie Kinsella
• Small Town - Lawrence Block
• What I Loved - Siri Hustvedt
• Absent Friends - S. J. Rozan
• An Almost Perfect Moment - Binnie Kirshenbaum
• Bergdorf Blondes - Plum Sykes
• Between Two Rivers - Nicholas Rinaldi
• Down Here - Andrew Vachss
• The Green and the Gray - Timothy Zahn
• In the Shadow of No Towers - Art Spiegelman
• Joy Comes in the Morning - Jonathan Rosen
• Love Monkey - Kyle Smith
• Matzo Ball Heiress - Laurie Gwen Shapiro
• Monster Island - David Wellington
• Nellie's Promise - Valerie Tripp
• Oh, Play That Thing - Roddy Doyle
• The Outside World - Tova Mirvis
• Solos - Kitty Burns Florey
• - Stephen King
• Under the Manhattan Bridge - Irene Marcuse
• The White Rose - Jean Hanff Korelitz
• The Brooklyn Follies - Paul Auster
• The Curse of Ravenscourt: A Samantha Mystery - Sarah Masters Buckey & Jean-Paul Tibbles
• Everyone Worth Knowing - Lauren Weisberger
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
• The History of Love - Nicole Krauss
• In Like Flynn - Rhys Bowen
• Love Creeps - Amanda Filipacchi
• Metropolis - Elizabeth Gaffney
• Pinkerton's Sister - Peter Rushforth
• The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion
• Beautiful Lies - Lisa Unger
• Oh Danny Boy - Rhys Bowen
• Nightlife - Rob Thurman
• The Emperor's Children - Claire Messud
• Mask Market - Andrew Vachss
• The Plot to Save Socrates - Paul Levinson
• The Righteous Men - Sam Bourne
• Rise and Shine - Anna Quindlen
• Size 12 Is Not Fat - Meg Cabot
• Size 14 Is Not Fat Either - Meg Cabot
• Tyrell - Coe Booth
• Big Boned - Meg Cabot
• Exit Ghost - Philip Roth
• Moonshine - Rob Thurman
• Queen of Babble in the Big City - Meg Cabot
• The Invention of Everything Else - Samantha Hunt
• Lush Life - Richard Price
• Madhouse - Rob Thurman
• Netherland - Joseph O'Neill
• The Associate - John Grisham
• Chronic City - Jonathan Lethem
• Deathwish - Rob Thurman
• Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann
• New York - Edward Rutherfurd

  2010s

• The Thieves of Manhattan - Adam Langer
• A Manhã do Mundo, The Morning of the World - Pedro Guilherme-Moreira
• ' - Pete Hamill
• Open City - Teju Cole
• The Gods of Gotham - Lyndsay Faye
• The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up - Jacob M. Appel
• The Submission - Amy Waldman
• The Biology of Luck - Jacob M. Appel
• Bleeding Edge - Thomas Pynchon
• The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
• ' - Meg Wolitzer
• - Matthew Thomas
• Modern Lovers - Emma Staub
• A Little Life -- Hanya Yanagihara
• The Outlaws of Maroon - John Curl

  Books for children

1870s

• Eight Cousins - Louisa May Alcott
• Rose in Bloom - Louisa May Alcott

  Twentieth century

1930s

• Roller Skates - Ruth Sawyer

  1940s

• The Matchlock Gun - Walter D. Edmonds
• The Saturdays - Elizabeth Enright
• Stuart Little - E.B. White

  1950s

• All–of–a–Kind Family - Sydney Taylor
• Camilla - Madeleine L'Engle
• Eloise - Kay Thompson

  1960s

• The Cricket in Times Square - George Selden
• It's Like This, Cat - Emily Cheney Neville
• Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh
• The Pushcart War - Jean Merrill
• The Long Secret - Louise Fitzhugh
• The Jazz Man - Mary Hays Weik
• The Contender - Robert Lipsyte
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - E.L. Konigsburg
• Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth - E.L. Konigsburg
• The Young Unicorns - Madeleine L'Engle

  1970s

• The Planet of Junior Brown - Virginia Hamilton
• Freaky Friday - Mary Rodgers
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - Judy Blume
• The Genie of Sutton Place - George Selden
• Nobody's Family is Going to Change - Louise Fitzhugh
• A Billion for Boris - Mary Rodgers
• Alan and Naomi - Myron Levoy

  1980s

• Sarah Bishop - Scott O'Dell
• Superfudge - Judy Blume
• Annie on my Mind - Nancy Garden
• Sometimes I Think I Hear My Name - Avi
• Summer Switch - Mary Rodgers
• The One Hundredth Thing About Caroline - Lois Lowry
• So You Want to Be a Wizard - Diane Duane
• In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson - Bette Bao Lord
• Motown and Didi - Walter Dean Myers
• The Bronze King - Suzy McKee Charnas
• The Cave Under the City - Harry Mazer
• A Rat's Tale - Tor Seidler
• Slake's Limbo - Felice Holman
• Charley Skedaddle - Patricia Beatty
• Remember Me to Harold Square - Paula Danziger
• Scorpions - Walter Dean Myers
• Silver Days - Sonia Levitin

  1990s

• Babyface - Norma Fox Mazer
• Berts vidare betraktelser - Anders Jacobsson and Sören Olsson
• The Mouse Rap - Walter Dean Myers
• Voices After Midnight - Richard Peck
• Monkey Island - Paula Fox
• Nothing To Fear - Jackie French Koller
• The Pigman and Me - Paul Zindel
• Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's - E.L. Konigsburg
• Jumper - Steven Gould
• Letters from Rifka - Karen Hesse
• Who Was That Masked Man, Anyway? - Avi
• Amy Dunn Quits School - Susan Richards Shreve
• City of Light, City of Dark - Avi
• The Kingdom of Kevin Malone - Suzy McKee Charnas
• Missing Angel Juan - Francesca Lia Block
• Scooter - Vera B. Williams
• Behind the Lines - Isabelle Holland
• Brooklyn Doesn't Rhyme - Joan W. Blos
• Rite of Passage - Richard Wright
• 2095 - Jon Scieszka
• Adam Zigzag - Barbara Barrie
• Lost In Cyberspace - Richard Peck
• The Thief from Five Points - Louise Fitzhugh
• Another Way to Dance - Martha Southgate
• No-Thanks Thanksgiving - Ilene Cooper
• Lily's Crossing - Patricia Reilly Giff
• Where You Belong - Mary Ann McGuigan
• Berts Babyface - Anders Jacobsson and Sören Olsson
• Jazmin's Notebook - Nikki Grimes
• The Kidnappers - Willo Davis Roberts
• The Other Shepards - Adele Griffin
• Dave at Night - Gail Carson Levine
• Downsiders - Neal Shusterman
• In the Forests of the Night - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
• Paperboy - Isabelle Holland
• Rats - Paul Zindel

  Twenty-first century

2000s

• Love and Other Four-Letter Words - Carolyn Mackler
• Miracle's Boys - Jacqueline Woodson
• Over the Wall - John H. Ritter
• Princess Diaries - Meg Cabot
• - Steven Kroll
• 6-321 - Michael Laser
• All The Way Home - Patricia Reilly Giff
• Chipper - James Lincoln Collier
• Don't You Know There's A War On? - Avi
• The Revenge of Randall Reese-Rat - Tor Seidler
• The School Story - Andrew Clements
• Secret in St. Something - Barbara Brooks Wallace
• Spellbound - Janet McDonald
• Ashes of Roses - Mary Jane Auch
• Bluish - Virginia Hamilton
• Boy Next Door - Meg Cabot
• Chill Wind - Janet McDonald
• Frog King - Adam Davies
• Gossip Girl - Cecily von Ziegesar
• Hey Kid, Want to Buy a Bridge? - Jon Scieszka
• Micawber - John Lithgow
• My Heartbeat - Garret Freymann-Weyr
• Twelve - Nick McDonell
• Vampire State Building - Elizabeth Levy
• The World of Henry Orient - Nora Johnson
• Gregor the Overlander - Suzanne Collins
• A House of Tailors - Patricia Reilly Giff
• City of Bones - Cassandra Clare
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians series - Rick Riordan
• Brookland - Emily Barton
• Missing You - Meg Cabot
• Jinx - Meg Cabot
• The Night Tourist - Katherine Marsh
• Mine All Mine - Adam Davies
• When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead

  2010s

• ' - Phillip Lopate
• Lowboy - John Wray
• The Murderer's Daughters - Randy Susan Meyers
• TimeRiders - Alex Scarrow
• ' - Alex Scarrow
• Bunheads - Sophie Flack
• ' - Alex Scarrow
• ' - Alex Scarrow
• - Alex Scarrow
• Modern Lovers-- Emma Straub
• The City We Became - N. K. Jemisin