Cityside

New York City, summer 1975. Globe reporter Billy Burke is ready to write the biggest story he's ever been assigned -- a story about a dying child whose family is too poor to get the surgery he desperately needs. But in the hungry, high-stakes world of post-Watergate journalism, Burke's just a foot soldier in a bigger, even more explosive attack on corruption in New York's hospitals. As the sick boy's suffering becomes a weapon in a no-holds-barred circulation war, Burke faces a wrenching choice: should he write the story and maybe reap a Pulitzer. . . or follow his conscience and risk his career by pulling the plug on the Globe's greed?

William Heffernan brings a big-city newsroom to life in all its eccentric, sometimes raunchy energy, against the backdrop of mid-'70s New York -- the post-Watergate era when attack journalism, as we see it today, was born. His provocative and atmospheric novel tackles many issues that still affect our lives today: the invasion of privacy and shameless tabloid exposure that can wreck a life with a single headline; the bottom-line mentality that makes a mockery of medicine; and the daily struggle of people to make sense of the world around them -- and make something honest and worthwhile of themselves.