Heart of the City
Nine Stories of Love and Serendipity on the Streets of New York

The handsome Texas sailor who offers dinner to a runaway in Central Park. The Midwestern college girl who stops a cop in Times Square for restaurant advice. The Brooklyn man on a midnight subway who helps a weary tourist find her way to Chinatown. The Columbia University graduate student who encounters an unexpected object of beauty at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A public place in the worlds greatest city. A chance meeting of strangers. A marriage. Heart of the City tells the remarkable true stories of nine ordinary couplesfrom the 1940s to the presentwhose matchmaker was the city of New York. Intrigued by the romance of his own parents, who met in Washington Square Park, awardwinning author Ariel Sabar set off on a farranging search for other couples who married after first meeting in one of New York Citys iconic public spaces. Sabar conjures their bigcity love stories in novellike detail, drawing us into the hearts of strangers just as their lives are about to change forever. In setting the stage for these surprising, funny, and moving tales, Sabar, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, offers a fascinating look at the role of place in howand whetherpeople meet and fall in love.