First published 2012
On an ordinary London street, something strange begins. Residents of Pepys Road start receiving anonymous postcards with a chilling message: "We Want What You Have." As the 2008 financial crisis unfolds, these cryptic communications expose the raw nerves of a neighborhood balanced between prosperity and desperation. Each household becomes a pressure point: a wealthy banker, an elderly widow, an immigrant shopkeeper, a teenage soccer prodigy. Their lives intersect through property, class, and the unspoken tensions of modern urban life. The postcards escalate from mysterious to menacing, suggesting someone is watching—and wants more than just a glimpse of their comfortable existence. With the financial world crumbling around them, the residents of Pepys Road must confront the fragility of their social contracts and the thin line between having and losing everything.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: ensemble-cast, social-commentary
Setting: London (England)
Period: 21st Century
528 pages · Hardcover · W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.