CITY · UNITED STATESBooks set in Manhattan
40.783, -73.971
78 books · 71 authors · 1905–2025
78 books here
Most-set authors
Fiona Davis (3) · James Baldwin (3) · Paul Auster (2) · Tom Wolfe (2) · Colson Whitehead (2) · Truman Capote (1)
Genres
literary fiction (34) · mystery & crime (7) · thriller & suspense (3) · romance (3) · historical fiction (3) · science fiction (2) · young adult (2) · fantasy (1) · horror (1)
Books set here
Set in Manhattan (66)
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Truman Capote
Upper East Side social milieu
Bright Lights Big City
Jay McInerney
1980s downtown Manhattan — clubs, fashion shows, editorial offices, cocaine, and existential drift
City of Glass
Paul Auster
City of Glass: Quinn's detective walks through NYC streets
Forever
Pete Hamill
Manhattan — the island Cormac O'Connor is cursed never to leave, watching New York grow from 1740 to 2001
Manhattan Transfer
John Dos Passos
the entire city as protagonist
Severance
Ling Ma
pandemic-era New York
The Blazing World
Siri Hustvedt
New York art world stage
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Tom Wolfe
Wall Street elite world
The Last Coyote
Michael Connelly
Repairman Jack urban base
The New York Trilogy
Paul Auster
City of Glass and all three Trilogy novellas set in NYC
The Shadow of Your Smile
Mary Higgins Clark
Manhattan, NYC — where Olivia Morrow navigates a family secret and medical diagnosis
The Witches of New York
Ami McKay
1880s Manhattan near Madison Square Park where three witches run a tea shop serving cures and defiance to New York's eli
Bossypants
Tina Fey
NBC/SNL headquarters and 30 Rock setting
American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellis
Fictional residence of Patrick Bateman
Bonfire of the Vanities
Tom Wolfe
Sherman McCoys expensive apartment
Fleishman Is in Trouble
Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Social hub for the Fleishman family
City on Fire
Garth Risk Hallberg
Site of the pivotal shooting on New Years Eve 1976
The Doorman
Chris Pavone
the Bohemia apartments
The Candy House
Jennifer Egan
Where Bix Bouton has a pivotal encounter near campus
The Light We Lost
Jill Santopolo
Where Lucy and Gabe first meet on 9/11
The Overdue Life of Amy Byler
Kelly Harms
Where Amy attends a librarian conference
Bodega Dreams
Ernesto Quinonez
El Barrio, Willie Bodega turf
Down These Mean Streets
Piri Thomas
Spanish Harlem streets of youth
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Michael Chabon
Where Joe and Sammy have their offices
The Masterpiece
Fiona Davis
Central location for the Grand Central School of Art plot
Cotton Comes to Harlem
Chester Himes
1960s Harlem crime setting
Dead Dead Girls
Nekesa Afia
Maggie's Café and the Zodiac speakeasy; Louise Lloyd hunts a killer of Black girls, 1926
Go Tell It on the Mountain
James Baldwin
Grimes family home
Harlem Rhapsody
Victoria Christopher Murray
Harlem Renaissance
Home to Harlem
Claude McKay
Harlem cabarets, speakeasies, and streets during the Jazz Age; Jake returns here from WWI France
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison
primary narrative setting
Jazz
Toni Morrison
Harlem Renaissance milieu
Passing
Nella Larsen
Irene Redfield's world
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
Les Payne
Malcolm's Harlem years as a street hustler; later his Nation of Islam ministry base
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke
Jeffrey C. Stewart
Harlem Renaissance epicenter
The Woman in the Window
A.J. Finn
Anna Fox's Harlem townhouse (W. 121st St) where she witnesses the murder across the street
Trouble the Saints
Alaya Dawn Johnson
The Pelican gin joint; Phyllis LeBlanc's world at the dawn of WWII
Crook Manifesto
Colson Whitehead
1970s Harlem setting
If Beale Street Could Talk
James Baldwin
1970s Harlem setting
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Evelyn's impoverished childhood home before she flees to Hollywood
Harlem Shuffle
Colson Whitehead
Site of the central heist
Audition
Katie Kitamura
contemporary New York setting
The 25th Hour
David Benioff
Last night before prison
The Godfather
Mario Puzo
Corleone family New York
The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton
Gilded Age NYC society
Metropolitan Stories
Christine Coulson
Entire novel set inside the Met; staff, ghosts, and opinionated artworks over decades
City of Girls
Elizabeth Gilbert
1940s theater district
Secret Identity
Alex Segura
1970s New York City comics publishing offices — heart of the murder mystery
Cosmopolis
Don DeLillo
One-day limousine odyssey
Clap When You Land
Elizabeth Acevedo
Where Yahaira Rios lives
The Heart's Invisible Furies
John Boyne
Bastiaan's AIDS research hospital
Rules of Civility
Amor Towles
Site of major conversations and ambition
Rosemary's Baby
Ira Levin
The Bramford apartment building — fictional name for The Dakota
The Cloisters
Katy Hays
Real Metropolitan Museum branch in Manhattan specializing in medieval art; Ann Stilwell interns here and discovers ancie
The Magnolia Palace
Fiona Davis
1919 Frick mansion and 1966 museum; two timelines entwined in New York's most iconic Fifth Avenue estate
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Chapter 7 confrontation scene: Tom, Gatsby, and Daisy take a suite here on the day of the showdown
The Diviners
Libba Bray
Where characters perform in the Ziegfeld Follies
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Ottessa Moshfegh
protagonist apartment, art gallery
Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
Steven Millhauser
Martin builds his hotel empire
Mr. Sammler's Planet
Saul Bellow
Sammler walks from apartment daily
Playworld
Adam Ross
1980s coming-of-age
The Emperor's Children
Claire Messud
Marina Thwaites Apartment and social hub
The Interestings
Meg Wolitzer
Where the wealthy Wolf family lives
Dominicana
Angie Cruz
Dominican immigrant neighborhood in upper Manhattan where Ana is confined as a new bride in 1965
So Happy Together
Olivia Worley
protagonist home base
Bleeding Edge
Thomas Pynchon
Iconic gourmet grocery store where Maxine shops
Also featuring Manhattan (12)
The Glass Hotel
Emily St. John Mandel
Ponzi scheme financial world
The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger
Holden's memory of childhood museum trips
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath
Behold the Dreamers
Imbolo Mbue
The Jongas modest apartment
Another Country
James Baldwin
Rufus roams the streets
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
Kiran Desai
Sunny's NYC neighborhood
The Difference Engine
Bruce Sterling
Setting of the climactic fight scene amid the alternate history's Communist Manhattan enclave
The Museum of Modern Love
Heather Rose
Arky Levin city of residence
Free Food for Millionaires
Min Jin Lee
high society Casey navigates
The Stolen Queen
Fiona Davis
1978 Met Gala storyline
Open City
Teju Cole
Julius apartment neighborhood
The Goldfinch
Donna Tartt
Theo and Audreys apartment neighborhood
Notable locations in Manhattan
Harlem13Harlem, New York City5Manhattan, New York City5Upper West Side5Columbia University3East Harlem2Manhattan, New York2Metropolitan Museum of Art2Midtown Manhattan2Morningside Heights2The Frick Collection230 Rockefeller Plaza155 West 81st Street1800 Park Avenue192nd Street Y1American Museum of Natural History, New York City1Barbizon Hotel1Central Harlem1Central Park1Central Park West1Central Park, New York City1Empire State Building1Grand Central Terminal1Grand Central Terminal, New York City1
Nearby books
Audition
Katie Kitamura
0 km · Manhattan, New York City
Free Food for Millionaires
Min Jin Lee
0 km · Manhattan, New York City
The 25th Hour
David Benioff
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The Difference Engine
Bruce Sterling
0 km · Manhattan, New York
The Godfather
Mario Puzo
0 km · Manhattan, New York City
The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton
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The Museum of Modern Love
Heather Rose
0 km · Manhattan, New York
American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellis
0 km · 55 West 81st Street