The Revolution of Every Day (Tin House New Voice)
It’s 1994, and Rudy Giuliani wants to oust a group of hard-working homesteaders from their makeshift home in an abandoned building on New York’s Lower East Side. Led by Dutch immigrant Gerrit, a veteran squatter who fled Amsterdam after a violent eviction, and Steve, a tough-talking, philandering handyman of Puerto Rican heritage, the community readies for a fight to save Thirteen House (so-called for its address on Thirteenth Street). Spanning seven months, from a difficult winter into the fresh hope of  spring, Luna portrays the thorny, complicated relationships among addicts and runaways in various stages of recovery with riveting passion and heartrending realism. Luna’s narrator moves with omniscient ease into the minds of Steve and Gerrit, as well as young, pregnant Amelia and the feline rehabilitation expert, Cat, an especially sympathetic character. Luna unspools the tales of the Thirteen House residents while ticking off the weeks and days until Amelia’s delivery and the impending siege by armored police. Luna’s forceful, unflinching debut is a love song for a Manhattan long lost to high-end boutiques and high-rise condos. --Diego Báez