"Let the Great World Spin" won the National Book Award in 2009.
It is written by an Irishman about New York City. It deals with prostitutes, pimps, drug addicts, mothers of dead Viet Nam soldiers, Jewish lawyers, Park Avenue matrons, a pair of Irish brothers--and Phillipe Petit (I think that's the right spelling), who walked across a cable strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center before they were opened. This stunt caused a sensation when it actually happened, and it links the various stories of the fictional characters in the book. Mostly, this is a novel about the city itself. I wish I could say I liked it, but New York comes off as hellish, and all the characters are frustrating. And that is all I have to say.
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