One for New York

America as the land of opportunity? Tell that to Steve Hill, and educated young black man, who arrives in the Big Apple in search of a simple dream: a secure job with a future. Hill is initially pleased to find work as the publicity director for a vanity press. However, the double-standards he witnesses, and is forced to accept, slowly begin to erode his optimism. In this, his first novel, John A. Williams heads straight for the rotten core of early sixties New York. In the process he rips apart the facade of hypocrisy from a liberal and superficially hip society. Based on the author's own experiences, ONE FOR NEW YORK is a searing attack on the conflicts and compromises underlying black-white relations. Bitterly funny and razor-sharp in its observations, this edition sees the first ever UK publication of John A. Williams' early masterpiece. * First published in 1960 by Ace Books as The Angry Ones Canongate Books Ltd / Payback Press (imprint)