First published 2007
Marina Thwaite writes while living in the shadow of her famous intellectual father Murray. Her close friends Danielle and Julius share her privileged world of Ivy League graduates and bright futures. Danielle produces television shows, while Julius struggles financially as a literary critic despite his education. Their comfortable lives shift when Frederick "Bootie" Tubb arrives in New York. This idealistic teenager has dropped out of school and comes to stay with his uncle Murray, determined to make his mark on the city. As Bootie disrupts their established routines, the four characters move through a New York still glowing from the economic boom of the 1990s. The city pulses with energy and possibility, unaware of the approaching disaster. Their personal dramas unfold against this backdrop of false security, building toward the September 11 attacks that will shatter their world.
Genres: american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: New York
Period: 1990s
496 pages · Paperback · Proa