Book Description
A transportive work of historical fiction chronicling the life, loves, and iconic successes of Rafael Guastavino, the influential yet largely forgotten Spanish architect of New York’s Gilded Era
Iconoclast. Genius. Womanizer. Architect Rafael Guastavino’s signature vaulted tile ceilings revolutionized Gilded Age New York City. The Oyster Bar in Grand Central, the Prospect Park Boathouse, and the iconic Old City Hall subway station number among his masterpieces. But while his works continue to imbue the city with the glamour of a bygone era, the man himself has been largely forgotten.
Told through the eyes of Guastavino’s son and business partner, Rafael Jr., Javier Moro’s magnetic prose brings to life the remarkable rags-to-riches journey of this influential immigrant family. Guastavino was a stubborn man, enamored of his own sense of destiny, but he was also a deeply compassionate father, as committed to his family as he was to his work, and equally defined by his successes in the latter realm as by his failures in the former.
Set against historical events including the Chicago World’s Fair and the sinking of the Titanic, The Architect of New York is a moving and entertaining father-son story filled with finely developed and deeply researched real-life characters (including such figures as Stanford White and Daniel Burnham) that captures the romance and drama while offering a timeless glimpse into the human heart.
Praise For This Book
"The Architect of New York is a page turner that reveals the secrets of a turbulent family life and the conflicts father and son—both extremely talented, inseparable companions, yet rivals—had to face in order to survive in the gilded age." —Antonio Banderas“The Architect of New York, a new novel by the Spanish writer Javier Moro, purports to be a memoir by Guastavino’s son Rafaelito, who worked closely with his father and built on his legacy after the older man’s death in 1908. It’s an appealing premise, an opportunity to explore the immigrant journey of a father and son who made such a vivid mark on their adopted city and country. It is also a chance to tease out the separate identities of the two men, who have often been conflated . . . Moro conducted impressive research for the novel, unearthing family letters that revealed, among other secrets, that Rafael led a double life in Barcelona before his emigration, maintaining two families at once . . . The novel is most successful in presenting the elder Guastavino through the eyes of the younger, whose attitude toward his philandering father evolves from veneration to resentment to competitiveness before returning, after Rafael’s death, to veneration." —John Freeman Gill, The New York Times Book Review
"Moro’s writing style is reminiscent of a stream of consciousness; the narrator recounts memories from his childhood and transforms a historical figure into a deeply human presence, shaped as much by love, pride and naivety as by architectural genius. Stylistically, Moro’s long, flowing sentences mirror the rhythm of construction work itself, and technical details like cement types, plumb lines and mortar bring out the narrative’s authenticity. Moro’s writing style favours detail and atmosphere over fast pace, allowing the emotional and historical weight of the story to settle gradually. The book also explores themes of immigration and displacement, the cost of ambition, father–son dependency and the illusion of permanence . . . The Architect of New York is a biography that reads less like a record of achievements and more like a portrayal of ambition, fragility and bonds that endure beneath monumental success. Fans of Marie Benedict’s The Other Einstein and Nancy Horan’s Loving Frank would appreciate this novel." —Natalia Kavlia, BookTrib
“Readers with a passion for urban development and history have lots to look forward to in The Architect of New York, an unabashed and ultimately heartwarming love letter to builders, painters, architects, engineers and entrepreneurs across the globe.” —Sydney Hankin, BookPage
"Moro serves up an illuminating portrait of real-life Spanish building engineer Rafael Guastavino and his contributions to the Gilded Age . . . [P]acked with rich architectural and period detail. Readers with an interest in the Gilded Age will appreciate this." —Publishers Weekly
"For fans of architecture and old New York, Javier Moro's new novel is a veritable wonder cabinet of lore about the Spanish architect behind some of the soaring masterpieces of the Gilded Age. For everyone else, throughout this trove is a second treasure: the complicated, evocative story of what it means to be the son of a genius." —Maria Hummel, author of Goldenseal
"A father, a son. A past to hide and a future to build. In this gripping biographical novel, Moro tells the story of how Spanish immigrant Rafael Guastavino not only made it in New York; but how in many ways, Guastavino made New York, designing and building some of the city's most iconic spaces, still enjoyed by New Yorkers today." —María Dueñas, author of The Time In Between
