Sarah Ditum

The man who made Manhattan: The Great Mistake, by Jonathan Lee, reviewed

Lee’s novel follows the life of Andrew Haswell Green in reverse — from his puzzling murder to his heyday as New York’s creative genius

Andrew Haswell Green, the subject of Jonathan Lee’s novel. [Alamy] 
issue 24 July 2021

What makes a city? The collective labour of millions packed into its history; the constant forgetting of incomers who arrive to create their own version of a place, their own versions of themselves; the desires of great men, whose improvements are partly intended to secure a better life for their less fortunate fellows, and partly a plea for their own immortality.

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