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