The Night Shift
A Novel
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
"The Night Shift is an engrossing and vibrant novel, and I loved watching my fair city shine in these pages. This is a great book for readers who love New York City after dark, and who see mysterious possibilities around every corner." — Emma Straub, New York Times Bestselling Author of All Adults Here
Only by traveling into the past can Jean discover a happy future…
Hidden behind back doors of bars and restaurants and theaters and shops all over New York City are shortcuts—secret passageways that allow you to jump through time and space to emerge in different parts of the city. No one knows where they came from, but there are rules—you can only travel through them one way and only at night.
When Jean’s work friend Iggy introduces her to the shortcuts, it’s to help shorten her commute between her night shifts bartending and her work at an upscale bakery. Jean is intrigued but has a hard time shaking the side effects—the shortcuts make her more talkative, more open to discussing her past and recalling memories she’s tried hard to forget.
When Iggy goes missing, Jean believes it’s related to the shortcuts and his growing obsession with them. But as she starts digging into their origins, she comes to find a strange connection between herself and the shortcuts. A shimmering, propulsive novel set in New York City during the early aughts and across time, The Night Shift shows that by confronting the past can we reshape our future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Burian (Daughters of the Wild) sets this captivating, detail-rich speculative novel in early 2000s New York City, where heroine Jean operates on a simple principle: when someone gets too close, run. And run she does when her psychotherapist boss asks one too many questions about her history, leaving behind a job she loves to sling beers at the Red and Gold bar. Desperate to escape her past, she's uncomfortable discussing her parents' deaths and the accident that stripped her of her passion for running, and she does all she can to avoid seeming like friend material. Still, she's quickly charmed by her musician coworker, Iggy, who introduces Jean to "shortcuts," mysterious fixed doorways through time and space—and shortly thereafter, he disappears. Despite her determination not to get involved, Jean's drawn into Iggy's disappearance and its link to the impossible shortcuts—and through investigating, she's forced to face what she fears most. Blending women's and speculative fiction, Burian draws readers along on Jean's emotional path toward self-discovery and deeper understanding of the world around her. The vivid descriptions of New York bring the city to life, creating a character just as palpable as the others. Readers will be hooked.
