From the bestselling author of The Middlesteins comes comes this unique novel about a forgotten heroine of the 1930s. Meet Mazie Phillips: big-hearted & feisty, she runs The Venice, the famed movie theatre in the rundown Bowery district of New York City. She spends her days taking tickets, chatting with drunks & eccentrics, & chasing out the troublemakers. After closing up, the nights are her own, & she fills them with romance & booze aplenty-even during Prohibition. When the Great Depression hits, & homelessness soars, Mazie opens The Venice to those in need, giving them shelter & dimes for food & booze, & earning the nickname ` Saint Mazie`. Inspired by Joseph Mitchell`s essay about Mazie in Up in the Old Hotel, acclaimed author Jami Attenberg`s novel honours an extraordinary life & heralds a completely original approach to writing historical fiction. Weaving together fictionalised diaries, writings & interviews, Attenberg has constructed an utterly convincing portrait of Mazie Philips, which is also a deeply moving portrait of New York as it passed through the First World War, Prohibition, the boom of the `20s, & then the terrible depression of the `30s.