#nowinpaperback

This map from the New York Public Library dates back to 1913, the year Harry Longbaugh, or “The Sundance Kid” made his way East in search of his love, Etta Place. What Harry found there were skyscrapers and gangsters, exciting immigrant stories and a city on the brink of becoming a metropolis. 

David Fuller’s SUNDANCE, out today in paperback, tracks the Sundance Kid’s journey through Manhattan and Brooklyn. It’s as entertaining as any Western, and as informative and engaging as any historical fiction. 

Here’s just a snippet of the adventures the Sundance Kid finds himself on in SUNDANCE.

The Woolworth Building, 233 Broadway

The cloud moved on, laying out the city below him as if a map unrolled, revealing the Statue of Liberty, the rest of the bay, the lower point of the island, buildings and streets, until he was looking straight down at tiny people and motorcars beneath his feet. He turned with the back of the cloud rushing away and watched the northern part of the island gradually revealed. Construction workers strolled on steel girders as sure as cats. They were intimate with the air and shared a fellowship in their work, knowing that they saw what ordinary men did not. For a moment, Longbaugh was one of them.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire at the Asch Building, 23- 29 Washington Place

The headline was stacked thee lines high in the center of the page: 

141 MEN AND GIRLS DIE IN WAIST FACTORY FIRE; TRAPPED HIGH UP IN WASHINGTON PLACE BUILDING; STREETS STREWN WITH BODIES; PILES OF DEAD INSIDE.

A photo beneath the headline had a caption: "The Burning building at 23 Washington Place." The photo was poor, framing only the upper floors, making it impossible to understand the building's height. A ladder rose from the middle of the photograph, but its reach was shy of the roof by three floors. In a small box in the photograph's corner: "Windows marked X from which fifty girls jumped- south side of building." A column of smaller headlines ran down the middle of the page beside the photo: "The Flames Spread with Deadly Rapidity Through Flimsy Material Used in the Factory. 600 GIRLS ARE HEMMED IN. When Elevators Stop Many Jump to Certain Death and Others Perish in Fire-Filled Lofts." The headlines went on, but his eyes blurred as Mary's words came back, followed by Abigail's words. Etta had been there.

 Little Italy, New York

They entered a building and navigated tight hallways with scant light. Longbaugh smelled frying onions and garlic, heard a juicy cough through a wall and an aborted scream over his head. He had absorbed the lesson and stayed close to his guide. That way, if anyone took a shot, they risked hitting Hightower. Again to the outdoors, but before he found a street sign they went into another building, out the back, then through another alley. Longbaugh quit trying to memorize the way. They could be anywhere, they could even have circled back to the same building that housed the Tall Boot. He followed until they were into another doorway, up stairs, down a second-story hall to an unmarked door, where Hightower knocked.

 Brooklyn Bridge

Han Fei had the cab stop a few blocks from their destination, and they walked the rest of the way. Her street was delirious with traffic, as trolleys came from everywhere. Longbaugh and Han Fei stepped forward, sideways, adjusted, slowed, and rushed. Longbaugh looked at the crosshatched streetcar tracks embedded in the cobblestones and wondered how the trolleys avoided creating metal monuments at every intersection.

Longbaugh noted yet another series of advertisements.

"That's the twelfth sign I've seen for base ball."

"Brooklyn Robins." He shook his head. "Forget them. You want base ball? Come back to Manhattan. We'll go see my Highlanders... only..."

Longbaugh was amused. "Only?"