First published 2015
Jack Shanley is a well-known New York artist whose charm masks his vanity. His wife Deb gave up her dancing career to raise their two children, fifteen-year-old Simon and eleven-year-old Kay. She has learned to overlook her husband's flaws. Then a package arrives containing printed emails that reveal Jack's secret affair. The box was meant for Deb, but the children open it instead. The discovery tears the family apart. They leave New York to rebuild somewhere else. Simon discovers the appeal of adult freedoms while Kay stumbles into situations beyond her understanding. As the Shanleys struggle to find their way back to each other, each family member must navigate the space between love and betrayal. Julia Pierpont writes with precision and humor about how families break and sometimes heal.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, adult-fiction, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: New York
Period: 21st-century
322 pages · Hardcover · Random House