An engrossing novel of ordinary New Yorkers 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***

'A lush study... Keen on the particulars of vast human catastrophes’ RAVEN LEILANI

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 – and 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.

From the critically acclaimed author of The Travelers, The Rich People Have Gone Away is an engrossing novel about ordinary New Yorkers brought together in a story of betrayal, race, what connects us to each other – and what sets us apart.

'A masterpiece' PAUL HARDING, author of This Other Eden