The Great Mistake

‘A great novel of New York’ - Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs To You

The new novel from the New York Times-bestselling author of High Dive

The ‘Father of Greater New York’ is dead. Shot outside his Park Avenue mansion in the year of our Lord, 1903. In the hour of his death, will the truth of his life finally break free?

Born to a struggling farming family in 1820, Andrew Haswell Green was a self-made man who reshaped Manhattan, built Central Park and turned New York into a modern metropolis. Now, at eighty-three, when he thought the world could hold no more surprises, he is murdered. As the detective assigned to the case traces his ghost across the city, other spectres appear: a wealthy courtesan; a broken-hearted man in a bowler hat; and an ambitious politician, Samuel, whose lifelong friendship was a source of joy and frustration.

In a life of industry and restraint, where is the space for love? As restlessly inventive and absorbing as its protagonist, The Great Mistake is the story of a city, and a singular man, transformed by longing.

‘Jonathan Lee has taken the bare facts of a nearly forgotten life and turned them into a rich and unforgettable story’ - Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13

‘A meditation on the meaning of success, and a magical escape from the twenty-first century that sent me back feeling wiser and more hopeful’ - Sandra Newman, author of The Heavens

‘A wonder and a delight’ - Tea Obreht, author of The Tiger’s Wife