by Adam Haslett
First published 2010
Doug Fanning builds a massive mansion on land in Finden, Massachusetts, not knowing it will ignite a war with his neighbor. Charlotte Graves, a retired schoolteacher whose dogs have started talking to her, discovers the property sits on land her grandfather once gave to the town. She takes Doug to court to force him out. Doug works as a senior manager at Union Atlantic bank, fighting to keep the financial giant from collapse during the first decade of the 2000s. Charlotte's brother Henry oversees the crisis from his position as president of the New York Federal Reserve, monitoring Union Atlantic and the broader banking system. Caught between Doug and Charlotte is Nate Fuller, a high school student whose presence awakens unexpected feelings in both adults. The legal battle escalates as personal and financial pressures mount, revealing how individual conflicts mirror the larger economic tensions of the modern gilded age.
Genres: american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Finden, Massachusetts, New York
Period: 2000s
320 pages · Hardcover · Nan A. Talese