Riverdale rare-book estate-auction venue

Riverdale, the Bronx setting of Apollo Kagwa’s estate-sale visit, brings his rare-book work into a domestic landscape of grassy plots, quiet streets, and a cluttered basement. There, with his infant son Brian Kagwa beside him, Apollo makes a discovery valuable enough to change the family’s financial prospects and the scale of his business.

Setting

The Riverdale section of the Bronx lies close enough to Washington Heights for Apollo to make the trip, but its character feels markedly different from the city blocks he leaves behind. The route leads through uneven, single-lane streets bordered by two-story homes on large grassy plots. On Dodgewood Road, the destination is a large single-family house with a driveway and a two-car garage.

Apollo makes the journey under the pressure of Emma Valentine’s limited leave from work: she can be away for only six weeks before losing her salary, so he must bring Brian along. He rents a Honda Odyssey through Zipcar, whose name for the vehicle is Suave, and pads Brian’s rear-facing car seat with pillows. Apollo drives no faster than fifteen miles per hour along the Henry Hudson Parkway; a trip expected to take twenty minutes stretches to nearly an hour.

The Estate-Sale Visit

A red 2001 Toyota Echo parked by the curb, its bumper sticker identifying its owner as a librarian, signals that Patrice Green has arrived before Apollo despite living in southeastern Queens. The detail makes the house a meeting point for the two rare-book dealers before either knows the full value of what lies inside.

The book Apollo finds comes from the basement. Its open, single-plane layout holds a boiler with copper pipes, a washing machine and dryer, tools and cleaning supplies, rust-marked paint cans, and toys that appear to have been left there for decades. Seven cardboard boxes occupy the corner closest to the steps. Among their contents is the book that Apollo recognizes as a potentially extraordinary find.

The Find and Its Significance

Apollo understands the book’s possible value immediately: its signature and dedication could make the discovery national news, and a sale might provide enough for an apartment down payment. He carries it out of the basement and negotiates with the old woman’s son at the side door, where the man refuses to let him into the house. Apollo offers fifty dollars, then allows the seller to raise the price to one hundred. The seller repeatedly checks his phone and even interrupts himself to answer a text; Apollo pays in cash and hurries back to the minivan.

Riverdale is therefore more than the address of a sale. The basement’s unremarkable boxes conceal a book with the potential to alter Apollo’s economic circumstances, while the hurried driveway transaction shows how easily such a consequential discovery can pass through an ordinary domestic setting. Apollo returns home to Emma and Brian with the find, which he later stores in a box in the room intended to become Brian’s bedroom.