Address Book

Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2021A TIME Magazine Must-Read Book of 2020Shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Award 2020'Deirdre Mask's book was just up my Strasse, alley, avenue and boulevard.' -Simon Garfield, author of Just My Type'Fascinating ... intelligent but thoroughly accessible ... full of surprises' - Sunday TimesWhen most people think about street addresses they think of parcel deliveries, or visitors finding their way. But who numbered the first house, and where, and why? What can addresses tell us about who we are and how we live together? Deirdre Mask looks at the fate of streets named after Martin Luther King, Jr., how ancient Romans found their way, and why Bobby Sands is memorialised in Tehran. She explores why it matters if, like millions of people today, you don't have an address. From cholera epidemics to tax hungry monarchs, Mask discovers the different ways street names are created, celebrated, and in some cases, banned. Full of eye-opening facts, fascinating people and hidden history, this book shows how addresses are about identity, class and race. But most of all they are about power: the power to name, to hide, to decide who counts, who doesn't, and why.'A must read for urbanists and all those interested in cities and modern economic and social life.' - Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class

Deirdre Mask's book was just up my Strasse, alley, avenue and boulevard. A classic history of nomenclature - loaded, complex and absorbing., Fascinating ... intelligent but thoroughly accessible ... full of surprises, Mask's fascinating study is filled with insights into how addresses affect ordinary people around the world., I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book so much. Thought-provoking and entertaining ... The Address Book is a delight from beginning to end., Illuminating, impressively researched

Deirdre Mask graduated from Harvard College summa cum laude, and attended the University of Oxford before returning to Harvard for law school, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. She completed a master's in writing at the National University of Ireland. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Guardian. Originally from North Carolina, she has taught at Harvard and the London School of Economics.

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