The New People
A Novel
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4.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A searing and strikingly intimate debut set in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, about a newly married lesbian couple who move into a flipped foreclosure, unaware that the former homeowners are still living in the attic.
Months after the housing bubble bursts, newlywed Chicagoans Emma and Rachel move into a charming little house in a conservative Indiana college town, hoping for a fresh start after a painful miscarriage. As Rachel immerses herself in her new role as a tenure-track professor and bestselling novelist, adjunct Emma struggles in the shadow of her wife’s success. Desperate to build something of her own, Emma secretly pursues IVF, even as Rachel insists they wait to have children. The house, initially a symbol of new beginnings, becomes a refuge for Emma from the town she’s convinced is set against her—until strange occurrences make her question whether she and her wife are truly alone.
They aren’t.
Charlotte and Dirk, the former homeowners, are secretly living in the attic above Emma and Rachel’s attached garage. Dispossessed by the recession and anxious about her husband’s declining health, Charlotte listens to the interlopers below, and her resentment steadily grows. What starts as small acts of defiance—missing food, flipped breakers in the fuse box, subtle scratches in the furniture—soon becomes sabotage. But when her campaign to drive out the couple goes too far, Charlotte’s and Emma’s stories converge in an explosive climax that will reveal the lengths people will go to reclaim what they’ve lost.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Revisit a 2008 America, torn by changing social mores and a housing crisis. Newly married couple Rachel and Emma move to an Indiana town and attempt to weather the storms in their relationship, including Emma’s miscarriage and her quiet resentment of Rachel’s superior achievements as a writer and academic. Plus, it’s not easy for a liberal lesbian couple to make themselves at home in a conservative neighborhood. Their situation is only made worse by the other two people also making themselves at home: Dirk and Charlotte, the former owners of Rachel and Emma’s house, who lost it to foreclosure and are secretly living in the attic. Is it possible for either one of these couples to find peace here when neither can truly live out in the open? Obviously, if you loved Parasite, this sharp little fable is for you. But anyone who’s struggled to find a place they can call their own will connect with The New People.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Uptmor's assured debut takes on the real estate woes of the Great Recession and the hurdles faced by a nontraditional family in a conservative town. In 2008, Chicago lesbian couple Emma and Rachel get married in California before moving to Indiana, where Rachel has accepted a tenure-track professorship on the strength of her splashy debut novel. Rachel adapts easily, but Emma bristles at the changes—not only has her own writing career stalled, but she regularly encounters prejudice, as when her next-door neighbor scolds her for kissing Rachel in public. Emma even begins to suspect that their new house— flipped in a hurry after a foreclosure and purchased sight unseen—is "conspiring against them" due to little things like "sensitive fuses." What they don't know is that the house's previous owners, retirees Charlotte and Dirk, are living in the garage attic once occupied by their estranged son, Justin. Having been duped by a predatory real estate mediator and scared away from a motel after they're robbed at gunpoint, the older couple have nowhere else to go. Charlotte is also convinced that staying put is the only way Justin can find his way back to them. Meanwhile, Emma, hoping to have a child, embarks on IVF without Rachel's knowledge or consent. In Emma's and Charlotte's alternating story lines, Utmor offers perceptive insights into the women's feelings of inadequacy and exclusion. This weighty novel will move readers.
Customer Reviews
How to explain?
I’m on the fence about this book. I read big chunks of it in a few days—it’s short. It held my interest, I wanted to know what was going to happen to the characters, most of whom I liked, Patti being my favorite. I never considered not finishing it. It has a good purpose behind it . . . it is a good book. It’s well written. So what’s wrong with it? I don’t really think anything is . . . I just couldn’t buy into Dirk and Charlotte living in the attic for months and months and stealing into the house when the girls weren’t home to steal food and shower. Couldn’t buy it. Still can’t. And I don’t even like feel-good books. But I knew what it was about and still bought it and read it and enjoyed it. Go figure . . .