Brooke Orr is happy to no longer be teaching. This Vassar grad with the do-gooder mom knew that her Manhattan childhood and its requisite privileges primed her to do more in the world. But what? Once she accepts a job for billionaire Asher Jaffe, Brooke assumes that she has been anointed in her calling --- to help the elderly man spend his billions before he shuffles off the mortal coil. But can she shift his attention to the things she thinks deserve his money, as well as make her mother finally realize that she is a worthy and productive member of society? What does society want from her? What does it want from any of us with or without billions in the bank?

ENTITLEMENT is Rumaan Alam’s follow-up to his tremendous hit, LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND. Once again, he tries to put progressive politics, overt racism, capitalism and conspiracy into a fully woven tapestry that is at once funny, damning and thought-provoking.

"A thoughtful novel...  ENTITLEMENT tries to express and explain just how the top 1% view the well-meaning people who help them with their business dealings and who is worth what to them in terms of a billionaire’s support and appreciation."

Brooke begins her career with Jaffe’s foundation willing to learn the ropes and, in a conversation with the man himself, mentions how the arts in education need more funding. Throughout her childhood, she benefited from music and art classes. Now, as a burgeoning adult, she fully understands how every child needs access to the same. As Jaffe becomes more trusting of her, he gives her free rein to find a school that could use a gift in order to provide these services. So Brooke becomes embroiled in the real work of helping others through a non-profit. Clearly Jaffe feels that her upstanding manners and intelligence, along with her Black family culture and her desire to do good, will help avail him of some of the money he has to spare.

But as time goes on, Brooke finds that negotiating with the mother-and-daughter team at an inner-city arts school, who are looking for a building to own, is mired in questions not just of taxation and implementation but of ownership and oppression. And how will Brooke keep the ladies in charge of their own dream without unwanted oversight from the foundation? Is it a tit for tat, or can you really get something big for nothing? As Brooke tries to convince her family and friends that this work is not just helping a rich white man escape taxes but is putting his ill-gotten gains to good use, she finds that every gift comes with a card that says “You owe me.”

Alam allows Brooke’s growing sense of what is right and wrong and what can and cannot be done to simmer quietly. As the octogenarian and his “protégé” get closer, and she begins to enjoy the spoils of his lifestyle (nights at the opera and VIP tables at Jean-Georges during the Obama years), Brooke is confused by the myriad of signs he swings her way. Does he want to sleep with her, let her control his estate, or give her gifts because she should get that apartment she wants, even if it’s out of her price range? ENTITLEMENT is about just that --- entitlement felt by those with and without the resources, asking age-old questions about worth and value that resonate with great cultural meaning.

The book does not give racism, capitalism and crisis the equal attention they received in LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND. Instead, Brooke feels that relaxing her opinions, her pocketbook (with the help of her company credit), and her ties to her family and friends is the only way she can enter the world of the billionaire with whom she spends all her time. But can she ever be a true part of that life? And if so, how much of it is she entitled to participate in?

A thoughtful novel that packs a much less gimmicky punch at the end than Alam’s previous horror story, ENTITLEMENT tries to express and explain just how the top 1% view the well-meaning people who help them with their business dealings and who is worth what to them in terms of a billionaire’s support and appreciation.