Book cover and book jacket design for Hell's Hundred Acres, the 2024 novel by Andrew Serra, author and former firefighter. Book features illustrations by Chris Burke (@gooddaytattoo). Serra shares a well-researched retelling of the Triangle Waist Shirt fire of 1911 - one of the deadliest tragedies in New York City history.
Hell's Hundred Acres originally released on Amazon.
Book Description: March 25, 1911. Hundreds of seamstresses are hard at work on the upper floors of a ten-story factory loft. The workday ends and Esther Greenberg stands from her sewing machine and heads for the stairs, looking forward to her plans for that Saturday evening. “Fire!” someone shouts, and Esther sees smoke outside the windows. The building is ablaze and she’s trapped nine stories up. Charlie Pendergrass has learned a great deal since becoming a fireman—about the job and himself. But he must decide what kind of future he wants, and he just might lose it all to the flames. From the irascible fire chief Edward Croker to the ruthless business magnate Max Blanck, Hell’s Hundred Acres is the richly detailed story of the disparate lives that intersected at one of the deadliest tragedies in New York City history—the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.
“…Serra brings the story to life with the people and personalities, the heartaches and even some joy that emerged from that long ago era in the Big Apple. If you’re Irish or Jewish or a firefighter or politician, or anyone interested in the history of downtown Gotham… You will be unable to put this book down.” -Keith J. Kelly, Editor-in-Chief, Our Town/West Side Spirit/Chelsea News/Our Town Downtown
Andrew Serra spent twenty-five years with the New York City Fire Department, retiring as the captain of Ladder 20 in SoHo—Hell’s Hundred Acres. He is the author of several books, including The Dead Florentines, La Petite Parisienne, and Zuccotti Park. In 2018, he published Finding John, a memoir of his experience as a firefighter responding to the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He has been featured on FOX-5 NY Good Day Wake Up, NY1 News Around the Boroughs, and Z100 Elvis Duran and the Morning Show. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.
