Eva Lindquist sits with her circle of liberal New York friends in her Connecticut weekend house the Saturday after Trump's 2016 election victory. Over tea, she poses a provocative dare: who will ask Siri how to assassinate the new president? The group includes editors, writers, a decorator, a theater producer, and Eva's husband Bruce, a financial guy. Only one brash book editor accepts the challenge. Eva curates her social world as obsessively as she decorates her homes, hosting a roving salon while controlling every detail. When she convinces Bruce to buy a crumbling Venice apartment to expand their shelter empire, she accidentally pushes him beyond their protective bubble. Bruce embarks on an unexpected love affair that changes everything. The novel follows these characters through the months after the election as they navigate their disrupted assumptions about safety, control, and desire.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Connecticut, New York, Venice
Period: 2016
Paperback
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness