How We Live Now

“Juxtaposed with eerily apocalyptic photos of empty streets and subway stations are other images and anecdotes that make Hayes such a needed chronicler of these uncertain times, because they reflect the resiliency and optimism that will help see us through it.”—Amazon Book Review

“Eloquent and elegant . . . How We Live Now is delicate both in its prose and content. Hayes' writing is crisp, and several chapters are poetic . . . A thread throughout How We Live Now is about chances taken and regrets for things not done. This provides the book's most poignant, salient theme . . . Hayes' book offers hope that we can experience such random, pleasurable moments of connection again soon.”—Philadelphia Gay News

“A remarkable portrait of loss, mourning and surviving.”—The Bay Area Reporter

“Its short chapters, interspersed with interludes of photos, pack a wallop of poignancy, beauty, love—even joy. How We Live Now is a lively, bracing read for our time.”—Los Angeles & Washington Blade

“In some ways, this new book could be titled, 'How New York Puts the Pieces Back Together Again,' as we see the ways—with numberless implications—that New Yorkers have adapted to the pandemic crisis. Certainly, Hayes documents enough of them to restore a sense of hopefulness about what is yet to come and the ways we must continue to alter our lives for the sake of survival . . . [A] poignant reminder that no matter what else happens to us as a community, city or country, this is 'how we live now.'”—Texas Public Radio's “Book Public” podcast

“Mesmerizing . . . It's a living, breathing diary of the city in one of its darkest times—and a celebration of New York's grit, its people.”—Afar

“Images juxtaposed with haunting poetry and reflections serve to create a poignant portrait of life these last few months.”—Paperback Paris

“Bill Hayes writes books that leave readers both awestruck and smarter.”—Career Author

“Since early in the year 2020, experts and pundits have been desperate to make sense of the grand and sweeping ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic is rapidly shifting the world. What acclaimed New York City author and photographer Bill Hayes brings to the conversation with How We Live Now however, is the same ground-level, impressionistic sensibility that made his memoir Insomniac City the tender and moving portrait it is, of living, loving and grieving . . . Threading essays together with journal entries and fine-art photography, How We Live Now is a wise and understanding companion for the lonely nights of catastrophe.”—Shelf Awareness

“Author and photographer Bill Hayes captures raw and beautiful moments of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. From deserted streets, shuttered restaurants, and other changes in this strange new world, he manages to find grace and gratitude. How We Live Now is a deep look at this unprecedented time we're all living through together.”—BookRiot

“Bill Hayes has unwrapped a New York under wraps during the lockdown. He is, in his photos and writings, the great poet of the everyday.”—Edmund White

“This is a love story—for one particular man in the love affair that began as the pandemic did, for the city of New York and its people coping with an unanticipated catastrophe, for what words can do, for the light and darkness . . . for being truly a citizen of the city and an inhabitant of the streets. Even at a moment when we were all supposed to withdraw from each other How We Live Now reaches out.”—Rebecca Solnit

“A touching volume . . . The photos serve as potent documentation of an unprecedented time.”—Kirkus Reviews

“An achingly timely and moving portrait.”—Booklist

“Images of empty streets and subways, when juxtaposed with Hayes's recollections—mostly of romances and amusing encounters with other New Yorkers—make for a startlingly potent contrast and show how abruptly life shifted from the pre-coronavirus world to the 'new normal' of today . . . Hayes's photos movingly capture a fraught and frightening moment in history.”—Publishers Weekly