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Cover of Motherless Brooklyn

Motherless Brooklyn

Jonathan Lethem (1999)

SubgenreMagical Realism
Age groupAdult 18+
Content ratingR
Pages (Standard (250-400))
Setting
CSM age18+
Goodreads3.86

Content levels

ViolenceModerate
Sexual contentMild
LanguageStrong

Protagonist archetypes

Neurodivergent Protagonist

Synopsis

From Amazon: Brooklyn's very own self-appointed Human Freakshow, Lionel Essrog is an orphan whose Tourettic impulses drive him to bark, count, and rip apart our language in startling and original ways. Together with three veterans of the St. Vincent's Home for Boys, he works for small-time mobster Frank Minna's limo service cum detective agency. Life without Frank Minna, the charismatic King of Brooklyn, would be unimaginable, so who cares if the tasks he sets them are, well, not exactly legal. But when Frank is fatally stabbed, one of Lionel's colleagues lands in jail, the other two vie for his position, and the victim's widow skips town. Lionel's world is suddenly topsy-turvy, and this outcast who has trouble even conversing attempts to untangle the threads of the case while trying to keep the words straight in his head.

Tags

Crime FictionLiterary FictionUrban NoirDetective Story