NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A richly textured portrait . . . an intimate look at a closed Orthodox community.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK It is 1976. And the tiny upstate New York town of Kaaterskill Falls is bustling with summer people in dark coats, fedoras, and long, modest dresses. Living side by side with Yankee year-rounders, they are the disciples of Rav Elijah Kirshner. Elizabeth Shulman is a restless wife and mother of five daughters; her imagination transcends her cloistered community. Across the street Andras Melish is drawn to Kaaterskill by his adoring older sisters. Comforted, yet crippled by his sisters’ love, he cannot overcome the ambivalence he feels toward his own children and his young wife. At the top of the hill, Rav Kirshner is nearing the end of his life. As he struggles to decide which of his sons should succeed him—the pious but stolid Isaiah or the brilliant but rebellious Jeremy—his followers wrestle with their future and their past. With this community, Allegra Goodman weaves magic. The nationally bestselling author of The Family Markowitz crafts a tale of family and tradition—one that confirms this author’s place as a virtuoso of her generation.

This is a treasure trove of little-known lore and rarely seen images of the heart of the Catskill Park -- Kaaterskill Clove, the mountain ravine that defined picturesque and sublime for generations of nineteenth-century artists and travelers. Home to numerous waterfalls -- including Kaaterskill Falls, New York's highest -- soaring cliffs, and world-renowned views of all Creation (as James Fenimore Cooper described it), Kaaterskill Clove helped launch the Hudson River School of landscape painting and became America's first mountain resort destination.

A visionary new approach to the Americas during the age of colonization, made by engaging with the aural aspects of supposedly “silent” images Colonial depictions of the North and South American landscape and its indigenous inhabitants fundamentally transformed the European imagination—but how did those images reach Europe, and how did they make their impact? In Sound, Image, Silence, noted art historian Michael Gaudio provides a groundbreaking examination of the colonial Americas by exploring the special role that aural imagination played in visible representations of the New World. Considering a diverse body of images that cover four hundred years of Atlantic history, Sound, Image, Silence addresses an important need within art history: to give hearing its due as a sense that can inform our understanding of images. Gaudio locates the noise of the pagan dance, the discord of battle, the din of revivalist religion, and the sublime sounds of nature in the Americas, such as lightning, thunder, and the waterfall. He invites readers to listen to visual media that seem deceptively couched in silence, offering bold new ideas on how art historians can engage with sound in inherently “mute” media. Sound, Image, Silence includes readings of Brazilian landscapes by the Dutch painter Frans Post, a London portrait of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison’s early Kinetoscope film Sioux Ghost Dance, and the work of Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School of American landscape painting. It masterfully fuses a diversity of work across vast social, cultural, and spatial distances, giving us both a new way of understanding sound in art and a powerful new vision of the New World.

Features more than 100 scenic waterfall destinations throughout New York State. New York State is home to arguably the most famous waterfall in the world, Niagara Falls. But thanks to its diverse terrain and an abundance of rivers and streams, the state also boasts more than 2,000 other waterfalls. From delicate cascades to thundering cataracts, each has its own compelling story. Waterfalls of New York State is a celebration of more than 100 of the Empire State's most beautiful and interesting falls, presented by three long-time waterfall enthusiasts who know their subject matter firsthand: Edward Smathers tackles the Capital and Hudson Valley regions; Scott Ensminger reports on the Finger Lakes and Greater Niagara; and David Schryver covers the North Country. Each waterfall is presented on a two-page spread with a full-page color photograph and descriptive text that includes details about the geology of the falls, local history, driving directions, access information, suggestions for the best vantage point for viewing, as well as other area interests. Sidebars feature handy at-a-glance information, such as the nearest settlement, walk time, trail conditions, GPS coordinates and the size and type of waterfall. Filled with gorgeous photographs and featuring regional location maps, Waterfalls of New York State is a valuable regional travel guide for weekend explorers, fans of waterfalls, visitors and armchair travelers. Canadian travelers from Quebec and Ontario will appreciate the many day trips available just over the border.

A man who sleeps for twenty years in the Catskill Mountains wakes to a much-changed world.