Architect Rafael Guastavino's signature vaulted tile ceilings revolutionized Gilded Age New York City. The Oyster Bar in Grand Central, the Prospect Park Boathouse and the iconic Old City Hall subway station number among his masterpieces. But while his works continue to imbue the city with the glamour of a bygone era, the man himself has been largely forgotten. Told through the eyes of Guastavino's son and business partner, Rafael Jr., Javier Moro's magnetic prose brings to life the remarkable rags-to-riches journey of this influential immigrant family. Guastavino was a stubborn man, enamored of his own sense of destiny, but he was also a deeply compassionate father, as committed to his family as he was to his work and equally defined by his successes in the latter realm as by his failures in the former.