Ten years out of Yale and drifting through a teaching career, Greg Marnier heads for his college reunion, jetlagged and drunk. There he bumps into an old friend, Robert James, now wealthy and influential from dotcom success. He has a plan: to buy up several abandoned neighbourhoods in Detroit and build a new America from their ruins.

A Luminous family saga from one of Granta's Best Young British NovelistsWhen the four Essinger children gather in Austin for Christmas, they all bring their news. But their parents have plans, too, and Liesel, the materfamilias, has invited Dana and Cal to stay, hoping to bring them back together.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025'Feels less like reading a novel and more like sitting in a car beside a dear friend . . .

a profoundly moving experience.' ANN PATCHETT 'Deeply human ... a beautifully quiet and devastating book.' SARAH JESSICA PARKER 'Funny, wise and knowing.' CLARE CHAMBERS When Tom's wife had an affair, he resolved to leave her once their children had grown up. Twelve years later, after driving his daughter to university, he remembers his pact and keeps driving West to visit friends, family and an old girlfriend.