Sanctuary

A taut, propulsive, one-sitting read about a wife and mother who, thrown into a strange and seductive world, tries to ignore what’s in front of her eyes.

Something is wrong in the narrator’s marriage. Something is wrong at work. But if she ignores the warning signs, maybe they will all go away.

Then comes the invitation to a summer at Sanctuary, and it’s too good to resist. An island refuge, free childcare, free housing, and a nice big raise. Her new boss, a “free thinking” pundit, has arranged everything. He’s obsessed with the culture war and enthusiastic about the real war, and he’s a lot of fun—if she can forget how much power he has. None of this really matters, though, because she brought her family to Sanctuary for one reason: to make her husband happy.

But as the glittering summer nights give way to muggy mornings, she becomes more and more disturbed. Her boss has a tenuous relationship with truth. Her husband is acting even more strangely than usual. As her world begins to unravel, the woman is faced with a dilemma: Should she labor to maintain the lies on which her life has apparently been constructed, or might the truth really set her free?

Wry, entertaining, and morally complex, Sanctuary skewers thought leaders with too much influence, busybody millionaires, and a society in denial about itself. It is a deft, biting, often hilarious indictment of our outrageous world.