The Fortune Seller
A Novel
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
"Sophisticated with just the right dose of sinister, this coming-of-age story doesn’t shy from the grisly power dynamics of privilege." ––Library Journal
When it comes to seeing the future—do you really want to know?
Middle-class Rosie Macalister has worked for years to fit in with her wealthy friends on the Yale equestrian team. But when she comes back from her junior year abroad with newfound confidence, she finds that the group has been infiltrated by a mysterious intruder: Annelise Tattinger.
A talented tarot reader and a brilliant rider, the enigmatic Annelise is unlike anyone Rosie has ever met. But when one of their friends notices money disappearing from her bank account, Annelise's place in the circle is thrown into question. As the girls turn against each other, the group’s unspoken tensions and assumptions lead to devastating consequences.
It's only after graduation, when Rosie begins a job at a Manhattan hedge fund, that she uncovers Annelise's true identity––and how her place in their elite Yale set was no accident. Is it too late for Rosie to put right what went wrong, or does everyone's luck run out at some point? Set in the heady days of the early aughts, The Fortune Seller is a haunting examination of class, ambition, and the desires that shape our lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The unique and gripping latest from Kapelke-Dale (The Ingenue) examines tensions among a group of young equestrians. In 2005, scholarship student Rosie Macalister from small-town Western Plains, Ill., is heading back to New Haven, Conn., for her senior year at Yale. When Rosie arrives at the house she shares with four other members of the university's equestrian team, she discovers that she's been assigned a roommate: new recruit Annelise Tattinger. A skilled rider, Annelise's arrival shifts the dynamics in the highly competitive house, causing once unspoken rivalries to rise to the surface. Before the end of the year, one of the teammates dies in a riding incident that's hastily declared an accident. After graduation, Rosie leaves Connecticut for a low-level finance job in New York City, while the remaining members of the team return to their wealthy family homes. Before long, disturbing text messages begin appearing on the young women's phones, casting doubt on both Annelise's true identity and the circumstances of their senior year tragedy. Kapelke-Dale skillfully blends class concerns, character development, and a menacing atmosphere, emerging with an intoxicating mystery that defies easy categorization. Readers will be tempted to devour it in a single sitting.
