BookPage Top Pick in Fiction, September 2017

New York City on the cusp of World War II is brought to glorious, messy life in Brendan Mathews' sprawling debut saga. The Dempsey brothers—Francis, Michael and Martin—all left Ireland under clouds of trouble. But Martin has started a new life in New York, marrying into a powerful political family, with ambitions to become a groundbreaking jazz musician. The trouble begins when his brothers come calling, and it becomes clear that the past is about to catch up with the Dempsey clan.

Mathews deftly handles a large cast of characters in The World of Tomorrow. On a collision course with the Dempseys is an IRA killer, an ambitious photographer fleeing Nazi-dominated Europe and a troubled heiress, among others. Perhaps the most vibrant character of all, however, is New York itself. In hard-boiled prose that ranges from gossipy to poetic, Mathews takes us from humble Bronx homes to rowdy Manhattan jazz clubs, from grimy back alleys to palatial Fifth Avenue estates.

Looming over these interconnected lives is the 1939 World's Fair, held in Queens and seen by many as a light of hope in an increasingly dark world. But just as Old-World troubles follow Mathews' immigrants to the New World, so will the war in Europe inevitably involve America. Until then, the Dempsey brothers—and all of the characters who've become entangled in their lives—may have only one choice: kill or be killed.

The World of Tomorrow is a sweeping, impressive accomplishment. Perhaps it could have been 50 or so pages shorter, and the ghostly appearance of an Irish literary icon may push past the cusp of believability. Still, Mathews has written an insightful immigrant epic, not to mention a first-class literary thriller.

 

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In June 1939, Francis and Michael Dempsey board an ocean liner sailing from Ireland to New York, where their brother Martin lives. They've just lifted a pile of money from the IRA, so it's perhaps no surprise that once they arrive, Michael disappears and Francis is stalked by a killer. New York forms a colorful backdrop as the brothers reckon with their family's revolutionary past. A big debut from Fulbright scholar Mathews; with a 75,000-copy first printing.

DEBUT Creative writing and literature professor Mathews's (Bard Coll. at Simon's Rock) first novel is all you could want in a piece of popular fiction. The tension never lets up, and the story is fast and mind-spinningly complicated. The many characters are well fleshed out; with few exceptions, you care about them. In 1939, storm clouds are gathering across the Atlantic, but the New York World's Fair promises an exciting future ("Asbestos: The Miracle Mineral," proclaims one exhibit). This massive yet charming book delivers guns and explosives, an elaborate con perpetrated on a rich New York family by a fake Scottish laird who's really a runaway Irish convict hunted by the IRA, menacings galore, and a man who threatens to kill anyone who stands in his way. There's suspense, humor, love, of both the doomed and requited varieties, and even a ghost of the poet William Butler Yeats. VERDICT This novel should prove irresistible to anyone wanting a diverting read. It's quality stuff—and fun. [See Prepub Alert, 4/1/17.]—David Keymer, Modesto, CA

Three Irish brothers tumble through New York during an eventful two weeks in June 1939, in Mathews's masterful debut novel. Francis, temporarily released to attend his father's funeral from the prison where he was being held for distributing pornographic literature, is in possession of some IRA cash he bungled into in the wake of a bomb blast. Francis has conceived an audacious plan to make it to America posing as a Scottish aristocrat, and is turning a few American heiresses' heads in the process. With him is his brother Michael, on leave from the seminary for the same funeral, who was shell-shocked by the explosion that netted Francis his money and has struck up a friendship with the ghost of Irish poet William Butler Yeats. Their older brother, Martin, is already in New York, where he is trying to make a living as a jazz musician, to the chagrin of his politically connected in-laws. Once reunited, the brothers are pursued by Cronin, a former IRA hit man who has retired to a farm on the Hudson River, and his menacing boss Gavigan, who concocts a sinister plan involving the visit of the British royalty to the World's Fair being held at that time in New York. Despite its length, this novel is a remarkably fast and exhilarating read, reminiscent of Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Like a juggler keeping multiple balls in the air, Mathews regularly adds new characters and their complicated stories to the volatile mix, without losing track of the original ones. With the wit of a '30s screwball comedy and the depth of a thoroughly researched historical novel, this one grabs the reader from the beginning to its suspenseful climax. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary. (Sept.)