First published 2021
March 2020 arrives with lockdowns spreading across the country. A Russian-born novelist gathers with seven other friends at a country house in upstate New York to wait out the crisis. The group includes his psychiatrist wife, their K-pop obsessed child, a struggling Indian American writer, a successful Korean American app developer, a globe-trotting dandy, a young essayist from the Carolinas, and a famous actor whose presence disrupts their fragile peace. Over six months of isolation, new attractions bloom between unexpected pairs while buried secrets surface. The novelist watches as four separate romances unfold around him, each revealing how crisis strips away pretense and forces people to confront what they truly want. Old friendships crack under pressure as betrayals emerge from the past. Each character must decide who deserves their loyalty and love when the world outside feels like it's ending. This chosen family discovers that being trapped together can either destroy relationships or forge them into something stronger.
Genres: fiction, romance, literary-fiction, domestic-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, contemporary-romance, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, second-chance
Setting: New York, Upstate New York
Period: 2020
317 pages · Hardcover · Random House