All cities, big and small, rely on a vast array of interconnected systems to take care of their citizens' most basic needs: keeping water bubbling through the pipes, traffic moving on the streets, power flowing to businesses and homes. Largely invisible and almost always taken for granted, these are the basic building blocks of urban life.

But how exactly do these systems work? Using New York City - among the biggest and most complex of world cities - as its point of reference, The Works: Anatomy of a City answers that question. Interweaving text and graphics, it sheds light on the technologies that power the metropolis: how do a billion gallons of water each day get to city homes and businesses? Who coordinates traffic lights to keep traffic moving on roads? How do flowers get to your corner store from Holland or bananas from Ecuador? Where does waste go when you flush your toilet? What happens when a subway car stalls? It also describes the people who lie behind these technologies - the pilot who brings a ship through the Narrows, the sandhogs who are digging Water Tunnel No. 3 under Manhattan, the maintenance engineer who ensures the Holland Tunnel doesn't leak.