A warm, funny and acutely perceptive
debut novel about four adult siblings and the fate of the shared inheritance
that has shaped their choices and their lives.
Every family has its problems. But even
among the most troubled, the Plumb family stands out as spectacularly
dysfunctional. Years of simmering tensions finally reach a breaking point on an
unseasonably cold afternoon in New York City as Melody, Beatrice, and Jack
Plumb gather to confront their charismatic and reckless older brother, Leo,
freshly released from rehab. Months earlier, an inebriated Leo got behind the
wheel of a car with a nineteen-year-old waitress as his passenger. The ensuing
accident has endangered the Plumbs' joint trust fund, “The Nest,” which they
are months away from finally receiving. Meant by their deceased father to be a
modest mid-life supplement, the Plumb siblings have watched The Nest’s value
soar along with the stock market and have been counting on the money to solve a
number of self-inflicted problems.
Melody, a wife and mother in an upscale
suburb, has an unwieldy mortgage and looming college tuition for her twin
teenage daughters. Jack, an antiques dealer, has secretly borrowed against the
beach cottage he shares with his husband, Walker, to keep his store open. And
Bea, a once-promising short-story writer, just can’t seem to finish her overdue
novel. Can Leo rescue his siblings and, by extension, the people they love? Or
will everyone need to reimagine the futures they’ve envisioned? Brought
together as never before, Leo, Melody, Jack, and Beatrice must grapple with old
resentments, present-day truths, and the significant emotional and financial
toll of the accident, as well as finally acknowledge the choices they have made
in their own lives.
This is a story about the power of
family, the possibilities of friendship, the ways we depend upon one another
and the ways we let one another down. In this tender, entertaining, and deftly
written debut, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney brings a remarkable cast of characters
to life to illuminate what money does to relationships, what happens to our
ambitions over the course of time, and the fraught yet unbreakable ties we
share with those we love.
Enjoyed the preview?