Nineteen Reservoirs

Thirty years ago, Low Life appeared to universal acclaim and secured Luc Sante’s status as the author of that cult classic of alternative New York City history. Now, he returns with another sidelong NYC history-here, the making of the upstate reservoir system that reliably supplies one of the world’s greatest metropolises with its fresh water, and without which the city would almost certainly have faded into insignificance. This meticulously detailed book is both an immersive history and a meditation on the significance of these willed-from-nature bodies of water to the city-past, present, and future.