Through Children's Gate: A Home in New York by Adam Gropnik, 2006 first edition.

Written by Adam Gropnik. First edition, 2006. Alfred A. Knopf. New York, Toronto.

"In New York, the space between what you want and what you've got creates a civic itchiness: I don't know a content New Yorker. Complacency and self-satisfaction, the Parisian vices, are not present here, except in the hollow form of competitive boasting about misfortune. (Even the very rich want another townhouse but move into an apartment, while an exclusive subset of the creative class devotes itself to dreaming up things for the super-rich to want, if only so they alone will not be left without desire.)"

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"Autumn 2000: After five years in Paris, Adam Gopnik moves his family back to a New York that seems, at first, safer and shinier than ever. Here in the wondrously strange 'neighborhood' of Manhattan we observe the triumphs and travails of father, mother, son, and daughter, and of the teachers, coaches, therapists, adversaries, and friends who round out the extended urban family. From Bluie, a goldfish fated to meet a Hitchcockian end, to Charlie Ravioli, an imaginary playmate who, being a New Yorker, is too busy to play, the Gopniks' new home is under the spell of the sort of characters only the city's unique civilization of childhood could produce.

"Not long after their return, the fabric of living will be rent by the events of 9/11, but like a magic garment will reweave itself, reviving normalcy in a world where Jewish jokes mingle with debates about the problem of consciousness, the price of real estate, and the meaning of modern art. Along the way, the impermanence and transcendence of life will be embodied in the person of a beloved teacher and coach who, even facing death, radiates a distinctively local light."

Adam Gopnik (1956 - ) is an American writer and essayist best known for his work as a staff writer for The New Yorker, where he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir, and criticism since 1986. He has written nine books, including Paris to the Moon, The King in the Window, and A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism. Awards include the National Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism and the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting. He has also been involved in musical projects as a lyricist and librettist. In 1995, he moved to Paris with his wife and son and wrote the "Paris Journals" for The New Yorker.

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Condition: Fine/Near Fine. Dust jacket: Light shelf wear. Silver-embossed red cloth cover boards. Pages are clean, undamaged, and complete.