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"A wistful, startling read. The Fool of New York City is an absorbing meditation on memory, identity, and the human capacity for survival and love in the midst of the most devastating of tragedies."
— Fiorella De Maria, Author, Do No Harm

"An extraordinary book. With exquisite prose and an artist's eye, Michael O'Brien weaves a charming narrative cut through with a heart-wrenching sorrow that might well leave you gasping for breath. It is the best of O'Brien's novels."
— Michael Richard, Author, Tobit's Dog

Set in present day Manhattan, The Fool of New York City is the tale of two souls who are considered to be "fools" and "idiots" in the eyes of most people they encounter.

One is a literal giant, the other an amnesiac who believes he is the seventeenth-century Spanish painter Francisco de Goya, hundreds of years old, aging more slowly than the rest of the human race. Billy the giant briefly suffered from amnesia years ago, and he understands the anguish of those who have lost their identity. He is an apparently simple person, a failed basketball player with an enormous good heart, who takes Francisco under his wing after they meet through a seeming coincidence. Together they undertake the search to discover Francisco's true past.

The quest leads them on numerous adventures and into the shrouded realm of hidden memories and the mysterious dimensions of the mind. It is a journey into the ironies and the complexities of human character and destiny.

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