16
HAPPENINGS
Photo by Susan De Vries.
A Brooklyn Tale
by CATE CORCORAN
Alyssa Cole’s latest book, “When No One Is Watching,”
is a thriller about racism and gentrification set in Brooklyn.
Shifting back and forth from the point of view of a
lifelong Black resident of a coveted brownstone block
to that of a white newcomer, the story skillfully incorporates
bits and pieces of the real Brooklyn: stoops,
bodegas, neighborhood history tours, construction
sites, even an ancient shuttered hospital and a mysterious
family photo album found on the curb. It’s set
in an unspecified locale “vaguely around the Crown
Heights/Bed Stuy border near Weeksville,” Cole told
Brownstoner. Reminiscent of Shirley Jackson’s “The
Lottery” in its effect, the book successfully elicits the
terror of real-life systemic racism. After reading the
tale, published by William Morrow in 2020, readers
may question their grip on what is real and what is
fiction. Known for romance novels, Cole moved to
Brooklyn after college and now lives in Martinique.
I could not put the book down and I find it incredibly
chilling and haunting. By the end, it no longer seemed
entirely fictional. What was the inspiration for the book,
and did you have a specific goal in telling this story?
I spent my childhood in New York City and across the
river in Jersey City, and most of my adult life in Brooklyn,
so I’d been seeing gentrification for years. Before I
moved, I had seen it really ramping up in my neighborhood.
It was just kind of something always in the back
of my head, seeing how things were changing in similar
ways everywhere, and wondering where do displaced
people go. So I had the opportunity to work on this
thriller and take all these ideas I’d been ruminating on
for years, some of which I’d started to explore in a previous
romance set in Scotland, “A Duke By Default.”
You lived in Crown Heights, Park Slope, Williamsburg,
and Bed Stuy from 2005 to 2014. What were some of the
changes you saw during your time in Brooklyn?
Each time I moved I could see the rent prices increasing
and how impossible it was becoming to find a place.
And even though I wasn’t making much money, I was
making more than people working full time at minimum
wage. I was always wondering how people were able to
make it work.
The book is set in and around Crown Heights and Bed Stuy,
close to the historic area of Weeksville. Why did you select
that particular location?
Because I think Brooklyn is emblematic of gentrification.
That particular location — once I decided Sydney would
be working on this historical tour, I thought it was also this
great spot because it has this particular history people
don’t know about. I lived in that neighborhood and had no
idea Weeksville was there — and I love history. It seemed
like a way to talk about this community and also the way
entire neighborhoods and the hard work of the community
can be erased. It becomes this casualty of change.
Is the hospital in the book based on a real building?
I mostly made it up. It’s a mash-up of various hospitals in
Brooklyn and Jersey City, past and present, and the lore
that can pop up around those types of places. There are
also elements of the Jehovah’s Witnesses buildings along
the waterfront and some other buildings from Brooklyn
history, but saying why would spoil some surprises.
As I was reading the book, I noticed some plot twists that
actually happened in real life, some of which we wrote
about on Brownstoner over the years. I don’t want to give
away too much of the story but, for example, one of the
characters finds a discarded family photo album on the
street. Can you tell us a little bit about how and why you
worked real-life events into the book?
I remember seeing an article about the photo album
years ago and it was something that stuck with me, the
idea of someone’s history just being out in the trash. I