Lost in the Empire City
Quill Tree Books, HarperCollins
October 29, 2024
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audio book narrated by
Jonathan Myles
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What’s this book about?
When Santo’s father left their tiny town in Italy for America, he made Santo promise to keep their family together until he has enough money to bring the rest of them to the US.
It takes a few years, but Mama finally gets word that their family can join Papa. Santo couldn’t be more excited to go to America — and to see his father again. However, Santo gets separated from his mother and siblings at Ellis Island, and he is left to fend for himself on the mean streets of Manhattan. Santo doesn’t speak English, he doesn’t know anyone, and he has nowhere to go. He has no money and no help.
While searching desperately for a clue as to where his family has gone, Santo gets caught up with a gang of boys who steal to stay alive. But when an unexpected betrayal leaves Santo scrambling, it will take all the street smarts he’s gained to find a way back to his family.
Resources
VIDEO: “A Film from 1974 Offers a Rare Glimpse Inside an Abandoned Ellis Island,” Phil Buehler and Steve Siegel, The New York Times, 28 May 2024 (may be behind a paywall)
Awards and Recognition
Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
Reviews
After five years apart, 13-year-old Santo Alfonsi, along with his mother and siblings, leaves his small Italian village home to join his father in 1910 America. Upon his arrival following a wretched ocean journey to New York City, Santo is separated from his family and must make his way alone in the unfamiliar, crowded metropolis. Determined to discover his loved ones’ fates but lacking the resources to do so, he falls in with the Downtown Dukes, a child street gang, and encounters danger at every turn. Santo counts himself fortunate to be saved from potential imprisonment by wealthy, kindly Mr. Ashbury—until he finds out that Mr. Ashbury is a thief of higher caliber than the Downtown Dukes. Now Santo must extricate himself from a life of crime before it’s too late. Atmospheric and richly detailed, this historical adventure depicts the chaos and confusion of early-20th-century N.Y.C. through the eyes of an inexperienced yet capable narrator. Avi (The Secret Sisters) maintains a razor-sharp level of tension, desperation, and claustrophobia as Santo narrowly escapes danger time and again in his quest for his family and a place to belong. (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
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