Author(s): Bill Hayes

Sociology | New York

Winner of the New York City Book Award

From the beloved author of Insomniac City, a poignant and profound tribute in stories and images to a city amidst a pandemic.   When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the United States in March 2020 and New York went into total lockdown, writer and photographer Bill Hayes hit the largely deserted streets of Manhattan to try to document-through words and photographs-how the city was changing virtually overnight. How We Live Now records those first 100 days of the pandemic in real time-a time of both hopefulness and great fear, long before we had effective Covid testing and vaccines-up to and including the historic Blacks Lives Matter demonstrations following the tragic murder of George Floyd.   Featuring Hayes's inimitable street photographs, How We Live Now chronicles an unimaginable moment in time with his signature insight and grace, offering a glimpse at our shared humanity.

Review: Bill Hayes has unwrapped a New York under wraps during the lockdown. He is, in his photos and writings, the great poet of the everyday. * Edmund White *
This is a love story--for one particular man in the love affair that began as the pandemic did, for the city of New York and its people coping with an unanticipated catastrophe, for what words can do, for the light and darkness ... for being truly a citizen of the city and an inhabitant of the streets. Even at a moment when we were all supposed to withdraw from each other How We Live Now reaches out. * Rebecca Solnit *
Images of empty streets and subways, when juxtaposed with Hayes's recollections--mostly of romances and amusing encounters with other New Yorkers--make for a startlingly potent contrast and show how abruptly life shifted from the pre-coronavirus world to the 'new normal' of today. . . . Hayes's photos movingly capture a fraught and frightening moment in history. * Publishers Weekly *
A touching volume . . . The photos serve as potent documentation of an unprecedented time. * Kirkus Reviews *

Author Biography: Bill Hayes is the author of Insomniac City and The Anatomist, among other books, and a forthcoming history of exercise, Sweat, to be published by Bloomsbury. Hayes is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times. A collection of his street photography, How New York Breaks Your Heart, was published recently by Bloomsbury. Hayes has completed the screenplay for a film adaptation of Insomniac City, currently in the works from Hopscotch Features, and he is also a co-editor of Oliver Sacks's posthumous books. He lives in New York. Visit his website at billhayes.com