Fannie Hurst’s 1919 collection opens beside the Bowery, where the boy of a Jewish immigrant family turns out to be a violin prodigy, a story twice filmed. The other stories stay among New York shopgirls, clerks and boarding-house dreamers, such as weary Sadie, courted with promises of a spring evening on one of the new Coney Island boats.
Sentimental and sharply observed by turns, these are the stories that made Hurst one of the best-paid magazine writers of her day. Download the free EPUB.