Greenwich
A Novel
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3.7 • 14 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A People Magazine "Best New Books" • An Amazon Best Books of July - Literature & Fiction • A Vanity Fair Summer Read
"A stunning debut...Fast-paced, beautifully written, vividly peopled, Greenwich is impossible to put down.” — Adrienne Brodeur, bestselling author of Little Monsters
Summer, 1999. Rachel Fiske is almost eighteen when she arrives at her aunt and uncle’s mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. Her glamorous aunt is struggling to heal from an injury, and Rachel wants to help—and escape her own troubles back home. But her aunt is oddly spacey and her uncle is consumed with business, and Rachel feels lonely and adrift, excluded from the world of adults and their secrets. The only bright spot is Claudia, a recent college graduate, aspiring artist, and the live-in babysitter for Rachel’s cousin. As summer deepens, Rachel eagerly hopes their friendship might grow into more.
But when a tragic accident occurs, Rachel must make a pivotal choice. Caught between her desire to do the right thing and to protect her future, she’s the only one who knows what really happened—and her decision has consequences far beyond what she could have predicted.
A riveting debut novel for readers of Celeste Ng and Liane Moriarty, Greenwich explores the nature of desire and complicity against the backdrop of immense wealth and privilege, the ways that whiteness and power protect their own, and the uneasy moral ambiguity of redemption.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Broad's insightful debut, a tragedy drives a wedge between a white teen girl and her new friend, who is Black, in tony Greenwich, Conn. Narrator Rachel Fiske, now 38, gradually reveals what happened during the fateful summer she spent after high school graduation with her aunt Ellen and uncle Laurent at their sprawling mansion. She's ostensibly there to keep Ellen company while she recovers after falling from a horse, but Rachel's true reason for being in Connecticut is to get away from her unhappy home in Boston, where she lost her friends after hooking up with another girl's boyfriend. After she meets recent college graduate Claudia, her little cousin Sabine's live-in nanny, they become fast friends and Rachel winds up falling for her. Meanwhile, Rachel grows disenchanted with the seemingly perfect town and the flashy Ellen, who is condescending to Claudia. Rachel also finds herself caring for Sabine on Claudia's days off, when Ellen is neglectful and Laurent is away on business. After a catastrophic accident, Rachel weighs what to do, with her feelings for Claudia hanging in the balance. As Rachel tells the story, she thrillingly scrutinizes her brittle morality and desire to please. Fans of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere ought to take note.
