El Bronx — Jerome Charyn

In the emerald island of Yankee Stadium Isaac watches millionaires play baseball, while a few blocks away children smoke crack and wave kitchen knives in the air. This is the borough where wild dogs used to roam the parks. This is the land where an angel paints paeans to fallen gangsters on a wall on Featherbed Lane - paintings so beautiful they could get him killed. This is a place where they call Mayor Isaac Sidel El Caballo - and where El Caballo knows his city is up for grabs.
The Yankees' owner wants to take the team from the Bronx. A corrupt lawyer is paving the way in gold and greed. And on the streets of the Bronx gangsters are waging wars of revenge. Obsessed with the Yankees and the young graffiti artist, Isaac discovers a dummy corporation is dumping money into a Bronx real estate scam, and that unlikely bedfellows are forging unholy alliances all around him.
Now the mayor of New York is missing again. He's gone with his Glock to the Bronx in search of a boy nicknamed Alyosha who may die for beauty by the side of a jaded little rich girl. His city beyond redemption, his own soul racked by guilt and illusion, El Caballo is going to save the Bronx, or bury his heart there.