In Albany, New York, William Kennedy has made a crucible to test the American dream. His novels - which range from the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth - bubble and crack with the energy of Irish immigrants trying to take the main chance in the land of opportunity. In QUINN'S BOOK, Daniel Quinn is thrust into a bewildering adventure through nineteenth-century America, witnessing the rise and fall of great dynasties in upstate New York, epochal prize fights, exotic life in the theatre and horrific battles between Irish immigrants and the 'Know-Nothings'. THE FLAMING CORSAGE unravels the mystery of Manhattan's 'Love Nest Killings of 1908'. And in LEGS - perhaps Kennedy's most brilliant creation - the celebrity gangster Jack 'Legs' Diamond and his show-girl mistress blaze their flamboyant trail across the tabloid pages of the 1920s and 1930s, ending with his murder in Albany.