The Rich People Have Gone Away

Ordinary New Yorkers are brought together in a story of betrayal, race, what connects us to each other – and what sets us apart ***A ROXANE GAY BOOK CLUB 2024 SELECTION*** ‘Riveting and original’ CHARMAINE WILKERSON ‘Absolutely unputdownable’ CLAIRE LOMBARDO Brooklyn, 2020. Theo Harper and his blonde, blue-eyed, pregnant wife Darla head upstate to their summer cottage to wait out the lockdown. Not everyone in their fancy apartment building has this privilege: not Xavier, the restless teenager in the Cardi B t-shirt, nor Darla’s black best friend Ruby and her partner Katsumi, who stay behind to save their restaurant. During an upstate hike, Theo lets slip a long-held secret about his mixed-up ancestry. When Darla disappears after the ensuing argument, he suddenly finds himself the prime suspect at the centre of a front-page police search for the perfect missing woman… ‘A lush study of relationships’ RAVEN LEILANI ‘As gripping as it is clever’ i PAPER ‘Weaves beauty and humour with pathos… Astounding’ BRYAN WASHINGTON ‘A marvel… A masterpiece’ PAUL HARDING ‘Glorious’ GARY SHTEYNGART