Publisher's Synopsis
Set in 1820s Manhattan, Hosack's Folly weaves a vibrant tapestry of a time, a place, and a people on the verge of surrendering their innocence and idealism for the greed and glory of the Gilded Age. At the center of the novel is an actual historical figure: David Hosack, the doctor who attended Alexander Hamilton during the fatal duel with Aaron Burr. Twenty years later, Hosack is once again at the center of controversy. Struggling to contain an outbreak of yellow fever on the New York docks, he has to contend with the malice of powerful merchants and corrupt politicians who aim to cover up the fever threat at all costs. With a supporting cast as varied and colorful as any in Dickens, Hosack's Folly culminates in a mass exodus as the epidemic sweeps through New York and the building of the Croton Aqueduct, the most ambitious public works project since Roman times.
