It is, perhaps, the first authentic novel about homeless, about living below and beyond this rich city. He evokes so powerfully the stink of the present, the poignancy of the past

Frank McCourt

Vivid, potent, beautifully measured, and sustained by astonishingly deft description

Independent on Sunday

A tour de-force social history of modern New York, exploring the labyrinthine netherworld of disused subway tunnels, from their creation by Irish migrant workers to their occupation by down-and-outs

Irish Independent

Disturbingly beautiful ... A dazzling blend of menace and heartbreak

New York Times Book Review

A rarity in this cool era - the urban saga with a social conscience, employing the large canvas once used by Steinbeck and Algren

Washington Post

It is partly a story of the men who dug and blasted New York's tunnels and of the high-steel workers who turned horizontal astonishment upon its vertical end, balancing hundreds of teetery feet above the streets to subdue the swinging girders and bolt them together into skyscrapers. Told with gripping realism and subtle detail, the facts – history researched – glow like jewels

Los Angeles Times