New York is the Thing is a trip through the lives of ten unique characters who left traces that are essential for understanding the New York of today.

With her well-honed pen, ingenious illustrations, and aided by her characters, Patricia Bolaños divulges corners of the city that are full of anecdotes as she moves from the apartment where the powerful fashion editor, Diana Vreeland came up with the idea of the Met Gala, to the rooms that the It Girl, Edie Sedgwick set fire to, the cruising bars where Robert Mapplethorpe took his most sordid photos, the venue where Marsha P. Johnson started her struggle for LGTBIQ+ rights, the Brooklyn streets captured in the films of Spike Lee, and the building where Nora Ephron found consolation after her scabrous divorce, and which inspired the sets of several of her films.