Free City

Eric Darton was born in New York City in 1950. His books include Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York’s World Trade Center (Basic Books, 1999, 2011), and Free City, a novel. He teaches at Global College of Long Island University, Harry Van Arsdale Center for Labor Studies (Empire State College) and New York University. Previously, he has been an editor of Conjunctions, American Letters & Commentary and Frigatezine.

"Witty and ingenious." —Michael Harris, Los Angeles Times"Darton's seductive fable is a stylistic tour de force, a dazzling parable about the birth of the modern age with its terrors and promise. It unfolds as the diary of a Leonardo-like inventor, scientist, surgeon, memory expert and sexual acrobat whose inventions include explosives, anesthetics, a military airship and humanlike automata . . . reminiscent of Italo Calvino's work in its dashing mingling of history and fantasy." —Publishers Weekly"A peculiar novel written in diary form, putatively by a famous doctor-inventor in a northern European city at the beginning of the Enlightenment. . . . readers . . . will enjoy the sheer inventiveness of the faux period language and the intellectual challenges of the narrative." —Booklist"Darton's first novel, a curious little dip into history and fantasy, is about the fall of a European city in the Enlightenment period—told through the diary of an aging scientist . . . Tongue-in-cheek historical tale that's intelligent, learned, and of good cheer . . ." —Kirkus Reviews