Metropolis is an outstanding book. Writer B. A. Shapiro weaves an intensely immersive tale.

Five disparate people live or work in Metropolis, a huge, castle-like storage warehouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Rose, the office manager, allows people to live there and pay her under the table. Lawyer Jason has his office there. Marta is avoiding ICE and writing her dissertation; Liddy is avoiding her wealthy and abusive husband; Serge is avoiding people while creating brilliant photographs. Then there's Zach, who purchased Metropolis to launder drug money.

Legal problems and love bring these people together, their difficulties escalating until it seems they have no way out. Discovering how, or if, these characters solve their problems kept me reading. But this is not one of those annoying "fast-paced, action-packed" books. The writing is filled with intriguing details about the people and the place.

Ultimately, Metropolis shows how hard it is for most people to survive and make a living when faced with poverty, abuse, mental illness, or the forces of giant corporations and bureaucracies. The story, however, is more enthralling than any of these concerns.