When a building in Harlem collapses, many lives are effected by the ripple effect of this disaster. But when a man is pulled alive from the rubble days later, the expertise of this author comes into being. I was especially impressed by the dialogue and the skills of this new-to-me author (and I will definitely be looking for his other works). Excellent and recommended reading.

Big fan of Price's The Whites. Unfortunately, this one did not pull me in. I know it was more of a slow burn; however, the pacing didn't feel right and I couldn't connect to the characters. Some may really like this one, but it just wasn't for me. Thank you to NetGalley for the change to read and review this book.

Lazarus Man follows a group of people before and after a Harlem apartment building collapses. I felt the characters weren’t engaging and I wish the story moved at a faster pace.

I am a big fan of Richard Price and was delighted to receive an e-arc of this novel. While I enjoyed his characterizations and dialogue, the book lack an absorbing plot. While I enjoyed the book while reading it, I did nor feel the compulsion to to pick it up between readings. I did finish it and ultimately did enjoy it.

Richard Price is an all-time great crime writer, and this novel Submits a story of surviving calamity through self-discovery and ultimately through acceptance, I did find the narrative slogged a bit at times but I still highly recommend.

Wonderful writing; unique, clever story.
Surprising ending ! I didn’t see the ending coming.
The writer has created a varied kaleidoscope of unique characters in this novel about a building on the Upper West Side in NYC that collapses, killing some, trapping some.
I enjoyed the setting ( being familiar with the areas around Harlem & Columbia University ) and the story moves along nicely.
Highly recommend.
Thank you NetGalley and ( publisher ) Farrar, Strauss & Giroux for the ARC.

Richard Price has been writing about New York for years. His first book, the Wanderers was published fifty years. But he has also found success as a screenwriter with credits including an adaptation of one of his best known books Clockers, and TV shows including The Wire and The Night Of. So it is not surprising that it is nine years since his last novel (The Whites written under the pen name Harry Brandt). Lazarus Man is a street level tale, an examination of a group of characters as they go about their lives following an unexplainable tragedy. There are some mysteries to be resolved but, overall that is not what Price is here for.
Lazarus Man opens in 2008 by introducing readers to a range of characters – Anthony does not know where his life is going and is looking for meaning; Annie is just trying to look out for her teenage son who is in danger of being drawn into the local gangs; Mary is a local policewoman who works in community liaison; Royal runs a local funeral parlour and is finding it hard to keep the business afloat; and Felix spends his days with a camera photographing life on the street. Their worlds are shaken and brought together by a tragedy – the unexplained collapse of an apartment building that brings back echoes on 9/11. The lazarus of the title is Anthony, who is found still alive in the rubble three days later, finds that his survival has given some direction to his life and becomes a minor celebrity.
Price is not interested in the why of the building collapse but the lives of his characters following this event, and in particular the role of Calvin, a reformed community worker who is campaigning against gun violence. All of them are dealing with their own survival and wellbeing - financial issues, relationship issues and family issues. Price’s authorial eye roves over this cast, dropping in and out of their lives and thoughts, finding moments of resonance between them, moving them all towards a revelation, or a decision point, and then beyond.
There is very little action or plot per se in Lazarus Man, and as already noted while there is a mystery (Mary spends most of the book trying to track down a man whose wife died in the collapse but has since gone missing) it is not a deep one and serves more to highlight some of the themes that Price has been playing with around relationships and fidelity. This type of neighbourhood can be, and has been, portrayed violent and conflict ridden, fuelled by poverty and drugs. But Price is more interested in digging beneath that stereotype. And in Lazarus Man he delivers a nuanced picture of the neighbourhood and its inhabitants with compassion and empathy.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I really appreciated how Price used the big event (failure of an apartment building in Harlem) to tell the stories of the various characters. He does an exceptional job creating character and place in this book.

Wow! Price's book exceeds all of my expectations. He brilliantly brings to life the people, the scenes, sounds and mores of 21st Century NYC. You feel that you are in NYC on the block of the destruction of the building. By the book's surprise twist I felt I knew and cared about Anthony, Felix, Mary and Royal. Needless to say I will recommend the book to all.

Delighted to include this title in the November edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national lifestyle and culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

Too many character, too many points of view.

Harlem 2008, a building collapses, dead, missing, bereaved.

We follow the life of Anthony - washed up and how his life interacts sometimes one person out with a a young photographer, a missing resident, a funeral parlour director, a community police offer and a regular police officer.

Some moments I loved the narrative, but for me overall this was inaccessible and I didn’t love the lack of conclusion for the key players.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher Farrar, Strauss and Giroux for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Richard Price has wriiten another amazing book about New York City. This one is about a building that explodes in Harlem and all that remains is rubble and people trying to find out what happened and who survives. The main characters in the story are a cop named mary who tries to find out what happened, Felix a photographer who captures the aftermath but who has issues of his on. There is also an undertaker names Royal who going broke and has family issues. The last main character is Anthony who is was my favorite character. The novel just brims with everyday life with sentences that just make you wonder how Mr. Price does it. I never have read a Richard Price novel I didn't like. It's like from page one you enter a world where the characters come to life and you actually feel them living off the pages. This is a perfect story for our times. It's a world where when we let things get to a state of disarray that it will always catch up with us. The building was neglected but the lives inside the building were full of hope or sadness but it was their life to live. Then the explosion happnened and their life was either lost or forever changed. What responsibilty does society have for things like this? It's a novel that will stay with you long after you read it. It will certainly be in my best of the year list. Thank you to FSG and Netgalley for the read.

Richard Price’s newest novel, Lazarus Man, is not as compelling a read as some of his other work, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable than those other novels, just enjoyable in a different way. Or somewhat different, since the reader still fortunately gets Price’s wonderful ear for dialogue, strong characterization, and sense of immersion in place and time.

The precipitating event for the novel’s occurrences (“action” is probably too strong a word) is the sudden collapse of a tenement building in Harlem that kills several people. All the characters we follow spring from that event. They include:

• Felix: A young photographer who lives across nearby and was struck down by the shock wave

• Mary, a police detective (who mostly works in community relations) tasked with finding out if a missing resident (Christopher Diaz) of the building was inside or not

• Royal: A down-on-his luck funeral director who needs the business

• Anthony: the titular “Lazarus Man” who was pulled from the rubble three days after the collapse and finds he has a talent for inspirational speaking

For various reasons, the characters weave in and out of encounters with one another, with the reader tagging along from one scene to next. If it all feels at times a little random and more than a little mundane, it also feels like nothing else but real life. More than most of Price’s work, I’d say responses will vary greatly dependent upon individual taste.

Sure, you have Mary searching for an MIA, which is kinda sorta police-procedural like. And yes, you’ve got what could loosely be called “family drama” as Royal is under pressure to sell the business out to his brothers. But it’s all pretty mild and gentle and slow-moving, a meandering quilt that lets you follow along, traces the lines and patches until you’ve outline one square than moving onto the next, which might be above, below, off to the right, over to the left.

Personally, I loved the novel. I felt utterly immersed in it: in its speech, in its details of setting and activity, in its warmly human characters just trying to get by day to day, week to week. It’s nearly impossible not to empathize with, sympathize with, and root for these characters. It’s not a propulsive novel by any stretch, less a car driving straight down an interstate toward a predestined destination and more a slow train across the Midwest making a gazillion stops over several days where you get to stretch your legs, chat up your neighbors, listen to their murmured conversations when the lights dim, and just nestle into all that humanity. Highly recommended.

The author has done a remarkable job of bringing imaginary characters into reality. He’s breathed life into the city and its inhabitants in a way that allows the reader to share in his amazing insight.

Lazarus Man is a beautifully written literary fiction novel by Richard Price which follows the lives of several characters after a building in East Harlem collapses. Anthony Carter is an unemployed teacher with an addiction problem. He is trapped under the rubble of the building for 36 hours before being finally dug out. After his miraculous survival, he finds himself something of a celebrity with requests to speak publicly about his experience. Mary Roe is a police officer trying to balance her homelife with locating the missing. Felix Pearl is a freelance journalist who sets out to document the disaster. Royal Davis is the owner of a failing funeral parlour. For each of these people, the disaster will have a profound and transformative effect.

The story rotates among these four characters as well as others, all well-drawn and fully realized as they each cope with and overcome the effects of the disaster. This is a quiet tale, beautifully told, with characters whose stories draw the reader in and who it is easy to care about, the kind of tale that will stay with you long after finishing it. I read this book while listening to the audiobook version narrated by Rob Mereira who does an impeccable of giving a clear and distinct voice to each of the characters.

Thanks to Netgalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to read and listen to this book. All opinions are my own.

In Lazarus Man, Richard Price spins an epic, sprawling tale while also keeping the focus on key players in the aftermath of a tenement collapse. With players ranging from police to a mail carrier to a photographer, the action is down and dirty. Anybody who's seen The Wire will recognize Price's hand in the depiction of gritty Harlem, the corruption, the charlatans at work taking advantage of the survivors, the tough guys on the corner stoop... you get the picture (Price was a writer on The Wire). It's a deep dive into the lives of these characters.

Throw in the titular Lazarus Man, risen from the rubble, and the story really takes off. Confusing, yes, but propulsive. I was annoyed at times with some things that didn't make sense, but luckily the story got back on track.

My thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the digital ARC.

Richard Price’s ability to capture urban angst in his gritty novels, television series and screenplays is incomparable. It has been almost 10 years since Price’s last novel, and “Lazarus Man” will not disappoint his legion of fans. Set in 2008 in East Harlem, the novel opens with the collapse of a five-story tenement building. As the city’s rescue services mobilize and media outlets respond, it is determined that there are 46 renters on the books with “probably as many ghosts.” Six bodies are recovered, some of whom were simply unlucky pedestrians who were passing by when the building blew itself out, but a dozen tenants remain missing.

The catastrophe draws a variety of characters, but the readers’ eyes on the ground are through the viewpoints of four characters: police officer Mary Roe, whose phobia about crossing borders hampered her ability to perform her duties as a detective, so she was assigned to Community Affairs in East Harlem where the “thrust of her gig was basically to calm people down.” Mary is separated from husband and is having an affair with Phil Esposito, who brings along a UV flashlight and a spray bottle of Luminol that he’d pilfered from the Crime Scene Unit to highlight any blood or other fluids not visible to the naked eye when he and Mary hook up at a motel. Mary views Phil as the “sexual equivalent of a square meal — hearty and filling — and these days that was good enough.” Royal Davis is a funeral parlor owner who hopes that the building’s collapse will generate some business for his failing business. Felix Pearl is an adopted, mixed-race photographer who shots film for the Parks Department and is engaged by Royal to produce a promotional video to publicize his funeral parlor. Anthony Carter, the titular Lazarus Man, is an unemployed former addict who returned to his cocaine habit when both his parents died and his once supportive wife left with her daughter. He is pulled from the rubble and becomes a media sensation, speaking at an anti-violence rally and a funeral. Mary and Felix agree that Anthony is a compelling speaker, but both have misgivings about Anthony, questioning if he was “running some kind of hustle.”

Price has penned another compulsively readable novel. Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Net Galley for providing me an advance copy of this gripping urban drama.

“Lazarus Man,” by Richard Price, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 352 pages, Nov. 12, 2024.

East Harlem, 1982. Anthony Carter, 42, has been unemployed for two years. He is separated from his wife and daughter. He was kicked out of Columbia University for dealing drugs, but eventually got a degree in education from a minor college.

He is home in a five-story tenement when the building collapses into a hill of rubble. As the city’s rescue services and news media respond, the surrounding neighborhood descends into chaos. At day’s end, six bodies are recovered, but many of the other tenants are missing. Anthony is one of the missing.

Others there include Felix Pearl, 24, a photographer and videographer who rushes to the scene. Royal Davis is the owner of a failing Harlem funeral home. He is there to possibly get more business. Mary Roe is a veteran city detective who becomes obsessed with finding Christopher Diaz, one of the building’s missing.

While this is an interesting plot, I had a real problem with Richard Price’s writing style. The opening paragraph is a run-on sentence of over 100 words. Price also writes scenes that move quickly like they were written for television. I really didn’t get caught up in this novel as I hoped I would.

I rate it three out of five stars.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Royal is a struggling undertaker, Felix a diffident street photographer. Anthony used to be a teacher, and now isn't much of anything; Mary is a cop who's ended up on community outreach work because of her crippling fear of state lines (a slightly silly detail that, once established, Price perhaps wisely never mentions again). All four will find their paths crossing after a New York building collapse, with one of the characters (and yeah, the title gives away that it ain't Mary) becoming something of a local celebrity after he's found alive in the wreckage. Price is usually bracketed as a crime writer, and there are definitely elements of the novel which fit within that, but really they're background to a look at urban life, precarity, race, gentrification – all familiar Price concerns. As is, though I might not have registered this before reading his early novel Ladies' Man, the fundamentally vexed business of heterosexuality, men and women so often at cross purposes; there's a particular fascination here with the in-between state of ex-ness. Not that I have any problem with crime stories sidelining the crime, most of my very favourites do – but I'm not sure I'd put Lazarus Man up there with Gaudy Night or The Beckoning Lady. Its observations are astute, its city and characters never feel less than alive, but it seldom hits the heights of a Price classic like Clockers. Especially once the character rescued from the wreckage gets a new lease of life and is enlisted as a speaker at the neighbourhood's depressingly frequent funerals and anti-violence rallies, it feels like it might be less than the sum of its parts, a little too wowed by familiar platitudes. Though, in fairness, characters do note how shopworn some of the wisdom is, and I think part of the point is that for this stuff to help, it's not so much what is said as by whom and how that decides whether it hits home. And yeah, Price says it pretty well. Though I still think it's needlessly distracting for a book with NYPD characters to also, separately, have a Rosa Diaz.

(Netgalley ARC)

A terrific read. This tells the story of the people on a block in a transitional NYC neighborhood where a building falls down-killing some and trapping others. Anthony, who has struggled with sobriety and himself, is dug out of the rubble. Felix, a photographer, documents life in the community as Royal buries its dead. And then there's Mary, a police officer who works Community Affairs and who is determined to find a missing man. A fight, a shooting, and a dead teen galvanize everyone in ways they didn't expect. This moves among all of them (and back and forth in time a bit) to create a vivid portrait with surprises. Everyone is changed after that moment, perhaps most of all Anthony. It's melancholy in spots but also humorous and the atmospherics are wonderful. It is, however the characters that soar- characters that are conflicted, challenged, and challenging. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Highly recommend.