Rent Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty: A Novel

Synopsis

"A timely, sophisticated tale [that] explores what happens when a charmed life loses its luster." –O Magazine

From the award-winning author of the forthcoming Awayland, an imaginative novel about a wealthy New England family in the 1960s and '70s that suddenly loses its fortune—and its bearings.

An NPR Best Book of 2016
One of Best Books of Summer –O Magazine
One of The 12 Summer Books That Everyone Will Be Talking About –Harper's Bazaar
One of 20 Books Perfect for Your Summer Vacay –Refinery29
One of 22 Summer Books You Won't Want to Miss –Huffington Post
One of 19 Summer Books that Everyone Will be Talking About – Elle.com
One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2016 –The Millions
One of 30 Best New Books for Summer 2016 –Good Housekeeping
One of 30 Books You Should Read this Summer –Chicago Tribune

Labor Day, 1976, Martha's Vineyard. Summering at the family beach house along this moneyed coast of New England, Fern and Edgar—married with three children—are happily preparing for a family birthday celebration when they learn that the unimaginable has occurred: There is no more money. More specifically, there's no more money in the estate of Fern's recently deceased parents, which, as the sole source of Fern and Edgar's income, had allowed them to live this beautiful, comfortable life despite their professed anti-money ideals. Quickly, the once-charmed family unravels. In distress and confusion, Fern and Edgar are each tempted away on separate adventures: she on a road trip with a stranger, he on an ill-advised sailing voyage with another woman. The three children are left for days with no guardian whatsoever, in an improvised Neverland helmed by the tender, witty, and resourceful Cricket, age nine.

Brimming with humanity and wisdom, humor and bite, and imbued with both the whimsical and the profound, Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty is a story of American wealth, class, family, and mobility, approached by award-winner Ramona Ausubel with a breadth of imagination and understanding that is fresh, surprising, and exciting.

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