In 2008, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers are going under, and the residents of Pepys Road, London --- including a banker and his shopaholic wife, an old woman dying of a brain tumor and her graffiti-artist grandson, and a shadowy refugee who works as the meter maid --- are receiving anonymous postcards reading “We Want What You Have.” Who is behind it? What do they want?

Lionel Shriver's new novel teases out the intimate relationship between terrorism and cults of personality, explores what makes certain people so magnetic, and reveals the deep frustrations of feeling overshadowed by a life-of-the-party who may not even be present.

Lacey Yeager is prepared to take the NYC art world by storm. Hungry to keep climbing the social and career ladders, she charms everyone who crosses her path. Her social ascension parallels the alluring evolution of the art world and the country from the late 1990s through today. 

In Seattle, 1962, Walter Cousins makes the biggest error of his life --- he sleeps with Diane, his children's au pair. Diane gets pregnant and leaves their baby on a doorstep, but not before turning the tables on Walter and setting in motion a tragedy of epic proportions.