Wayne, author of six previous novels, returns with an ingenious dissection of marriage, masculinity, and privilege, propelled by a gimlet-eyed wit. The opening scene—a Manhattan fundraiser where tuxedoed men “like inflatable penguins” mingle over wagyu sliders with their “spectral, hollow-cheeked wives”—establishes both the novel’s milieu and the lopsided dynamic between Steven, a 45-year-old writer living […]
It begins when Mike, newly demoted from investigator, sees flames half a mile away and rushes into a burning house, where he’s too late to rescue Jenna Malloy or her husband, gym owner Brian. The only survivor is a baby girl Mike finds in the arms of a neighbor, Karen Kershaw. Waldo County Sheriff’s Deputy […]
In the year 3989, Sook Joo begins her teen years living at an orphanage with her grandfather Ryu, a village surgeon and master practitioner of Orikido, an ancient form of martial arts that uses traditional techniques and locally fabricated steel weapons. When the gentle peace of the orphanage is broken by a group of “Slängers”—a […]
The author became engaged to a man named Sam at 17 years old with her “mother’s full support,” she recalls. When she tried to cut ties, Sam’s first manipulative suicide attempt convinced her that she was “responsible for him, for his life.” By the age of 19, she married him, solidifying Sam’s hold upon her. […]
Set in New York City, poet Bush’s novella follows Courtney, a teacher at a private preschool, over the course of one workday. Fresh off a “light nervous breakdown,” Courtney is contending with the ghosts of her past—a divorce; fraught family relationships; the death of her childhood best friend—while attempting to be fully engaged with her […]
Ben has been obsessed with megastar Jack Whitlock far longer than he’s worked as a paparazzo: As a teenager in Las Vegas, he went to the drive-thru theater to watch the actor, and later he got a job bussing tables at the diner where Whitlock shot scenes for his Vegas-set film Double or Nothing. Since […]
Gino is one of those troubled young men who might be called wayward, but that implies he’s strayed from a path he can see, when it would be more accurate to say he’s way-free, adrift, rudderless. In his early 20s, he returns home to the Abruzzo region of Italy. At loose ends, and spurred on […]
As Lucy Cooper delivers the eulogy at her father’s funeral on Winthrop Island, a Northeast vacation spot where her dad lived year-round, she can’t believe he’s gone. It’s been years since she’s seen him, both because of her relocation to Europe and her dad’s embarrassing obsession with chasing pirate treasure. Lucy is surprised to discover […]
Jane Trevally is at a crossroads of sorts. After a traumatic childhood, she sought safety and solace in marriages with wealthy men. Now twice divorced and living with her four dogs in the crumbling English country mansion that is her birthright, she’s feeling the need to do something, to take a job, when one day […]
Political science professor Williams (City of Ambition: FDR, LaGuardia, and the Making of Modern New York, 2013) focuses this new exploration of New York City’s modern development on three key areas that “embody the tensions…at the heart of political life in a democratic capitalist city”: housing, schools, and policing. Williams’ analysis of these issues inarguably […]