Los Angeles in History and Culture

In the barrio of East Los Angeles, a group of unbreakable young women struggle to find their way through the turbulent urban landscape of the 1960s.

Fante's second novel details the adventures of his alterego, Arturo Bandini, as the struggling young writer tackles Los Angeles in the late 1930s.

In Southland Nina Revoyr brings us a compelling story of race, love, murder, and history against the backdrop of Los Angeles.

The Big Sleep, Chandler's first novel, introduces Philip Marlowe, a private detective inhabiting the seamy side of Los Angeles in the 1930s, as he takes on a case involving a paralyzed California millionaire, two psychotic daughters, blackmail, and murder. In Farewell, My Lovely, Marlowe deals with the gambling circuit, a murder he stumbles upon, and three very beautiful but potentially deadly women. In The High Window, Marlowe searches the California underworld for a priceless gold coin and finds himself deep in the tangled affairs of a dead coin collector.