On Sale: May 30, 2023
Page Count: 384 pages
Publisher: Algonquin Books
ISBN-13: 9781643753881

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$22.99 CAD

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Six people, six secrets, six different backgrounds. They would never have met if not for their connection to the Metropolis Storage Warehouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When someone falls down an elevator shaft at the facility, each of the six becomes caught up in an intensifying chain of events.

We meet Serge, an unstable but brilliant street photographer who lives in his storage unit; Marta, an undocumented immigrant finishing her dissertation and hiding from ICE; Liddy, an abused wife and mother who recreates her children’s bedroom in her unit; Jason, a former corporate lawyer now practicing in the facility; Rose, the office manager, who takes illegal kickbacks to let renters live in the building; and Zach, an ex–drug dealer and now the building’s owner, who scans Serge’s photos as he searches for clues to the accident.

But was it an accident? A murder attempt? Suicide? As her characters dip in and out of one another’s lives trying to find answers and battling societal forces beyond their control, B. A. Shapiro questions the myth of the American dream and builds tension to an exhilarating climax.

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B. A. Shapiro is the bestselling author of The Collector's Apprentice, The Muralist, and The Art Forger, which won the New England Book Award for Fiction and the Boston Authors Society Award for Fiction, among other honors. Her books have been selected as community reads in numerous cities and translated throughout the world. Before becoming a novelist, she taught sociology at Tufts University and creative writing at Northeastern University. She and her husband, Dan, divide their time between Boston and Florida.

“An ingeniously plotted hybrid social/suspense novel . . . [Shapiro] takes her time loading the bases, and in the last inning, she hits it out of the park.”
Shelf Awareness
“Metropolis has all the elements I love in a novel: fascinating characters, a pace that crackles with tension, and a deeper message that will resonate with everyone. Once again, B. A. Shapiro weaves a unique and riveting tale.”
Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of I Know a Secret
“A rich and gripping journey through intersecting lives, a nuanced exploration of characters who share nothing in common—but almost everything too. Inventive and immersive, it’s a page-turner of novel that will also make you want to slow down and soak it all in.”
Lou Berney, Edgar Award-winning author of November Road
“In Metropolis, Shapiro is the literary equivalent of a master juggler, writing with tremendous compassion and a wonderful knack for storytelling. Her characters whirl together within the confines of a self-storage unit and, though at its core is a mystery, its beating heart is their stories. It is a dazzling performance and a novel that will stay with me for a long time to come.”
Mary Morris, author of Gateway to the Moon
“Part mystery, part sociological study… fascinating.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Skillfully crafted with memorable characters, Metropolis is a riveting psychological thriller of a read from cover to cover. Raising crime fiction to an impressively high literary level…”
Midwest Book Review
A “spellbinder from the bestselling author of The Art Forger and The Muralist.”
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B. A. Shapiro

About the Author

B. A. Shapiro is the bestselling author of The Collector’s Apprentice, The Muralist, and The Art Forger, which won the New England Book Award for Fiction and the Boston Authors Society Award for Fiction, among other honors. Her books have been selected as community reads in numerous cities and translated throughout the world. Before becoming a novelist, she taught sociology at Tufts University and creative writing at Northeastern University. She and her husband, Dan, divide their time between Boston and Florida.

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