EDITOR’S CHOICE
A tender, beautifully written memoir that captures love, loss, and identity with wit, warmth, and unforgettable emotional resonance.
C O Moed’s It Was Her New York is a heartfelt, humorous, and visually rich memoir that captures the complex intersections of identity, memory, and place. Through a series of deeply personal essays and evocative full-colour snapshots, Moed documents her journey as caregiver to her mother, Florence—a once-brilliant Juilliard-trained pianist now slipping into dementia—against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Lower East Side.
The book pulses with the texture of lived experience: the bittersweet tenderness of mother-daughter relationships, the quiet grief of watching a loved one fade, and the intimate recollections of a city that no longer exists as it once did. Yet, alongside the loss, there is also discovery—of love suppressed, of hidden queerness, and of the enduring spirit of old lesbians navigating a city that forgets them.
Moed’s prose is sharp yet lyrical, tinged with wit, sorrow, and deep affection. The inclusion of candid photographs enriches the narrative, grounding its emotional depth in a tangible sense of time and place. It’s a love letter not only to Florence, but to an entire generation and a vanishing New York.
Winner of multiple awards, It Was Her New York is more than a memoir—it’s a mosaic of resilience, grief, laughter, and fierce devotion. Readers who’ve faced the loss of a parent, the erosion of a familiar neighbourhood, or the complexities of queer identity will find something raw, honest, and profoundly moving in these pages. A quiet triumph of memory and meaning.
