The Address

Fiona Davis wrote The Address.  You can see a striking building in the background on the cover. That building is the Dakota apartment building in New York City right off of Central Park which is a real place. The Dakota had some famous tenants including Lauren Bacall, Leonard Bernstein, Roberta Flack, Connie Chung, Gilda Radner, Boris Karloff and Judy Garland. John Lennon lived there and was murdered in the entry. This novel takes place in two timelines. When the building is first opened in the 1880's Sarah Smythe is hired to be the managerette. Sarah's story starts out as an upstanding career woman until her life derails and she becomes a train wreck including a stint in the infamous insanity ward visited by the famous journalist Nelly Bly. The second timeline is in the 1980's when a young woman named Baily is hired to do the interior design of the apartment in the Dakota owned by the offspring of the building's architect. Baily is just coming out of rehab and her life is a train wreck at first. Baily does some research into the life of Sarah Smythe and the results are very interesting. This book was interesting and I got the chance to learn more about the history of New York City.