“Brilliantly imagined.” — Maggie Shipstead, author of Seating Arrangements and Astonish Me
From the award-winning author of No One Is Here Except All of Us, an imaginative novel about a wealthy New England family in the 1960s and ’70s that suddenly loses its fortune—and its bearings.
Labor Day, 1976, Martha’s Vineyard. Summering at the family beach house along this moneyed coast of New England, Fern and Edgar—married with three children—are happily preparing for a family birthday celebration when they learn that the unimaginable has occurred: There is no more money. More specifically, there’s no more money in the estate of Fern’s recently deceased parents, which, as the sole source of Fern and Edgar’s income, had allowed them to live this beautiful, comfortable life despite their professed anti-money ideals. Quickly, the once-charmed family unravels. In distress and confusion, Fern and Edgar are each tempted away on separate adventures: she on a road trip with a stranger, he on an ill-advised sailing voyage with another woman. The three children are left for days with no guardian whatsoever, in an improvised Neverland helmed by the tender, witty, and resourceful Cricket, age nine.
Brimming with humanity and wisdom, humor and bite, and imbued with both the whimsical and the profound, Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty is a story of American wealth, class, family, and mobility, approached by award-winner Ramona Ausubel with a breadth of imagination and understanding that is fresh, surprising, and exciting.
Reviews:
“Ausubel charts the unfolding crisis with tenderness, wit and a sly understanding of wealth and its limitations.” People, Book of the Week
“Ausubel’s writing, melancholy and fine, shines in illuminating everyday scenes of life…even the throwaway details are terrific.” — The New York Times
“Ausubel’s often whimsical prose is in top form yet again as she imbues the story with her signature touch of magic. This one’s just lovely.” —Elle
“Devilishly imaginative.” — Vanity Fair
One of the 100 Best Beach Reads of all Time–New York Magazine
“‘There’s no more money.’ This stark discovery by a golden couple triggers a series of funny, touching adventures. . . Set in the anything-goes ‘70s, this story inspires surprising happiness.” —Good Housekeeping
“Sons and Daughters is this summer’s much-raved about new release, and with good reason. Pick this up if you want an imaginative read with a dash of drama and some deep insight on wealth and class in America.” —USA Today
A Must Read–Time
“A timely, sophisticated tale [that] explores what happens when a charmed life loses its luster.” — O, The Oprah Magazine
“Naming is what fiction does. When it works well, we’re slightly altered for the better. Someone got it right this time, in the form of a kind of hymn. Her name’s Ramona Ausubel.” — The San Francisco Chronicle
“When a family loses its fortune, everything begins to unravel in this enthralling and original novel.” — The Minneapolis Star Tribune
“It’s not easy to make the travails of one-percenters sympathetic to the Costco-shopping rest of us, but if there’s a novelist up to the task of charming a reader into submission, it’s Ramona Ausubel, who writes heartfelt, quirky fiction with winsome prose.” — the Los Angeles Times
“What drama ensues is in the pleasure of reading Ausubel’s lyrical prose.” — Travel + Leisure
“Full of wisdom and wonderfully meditative insights on wealth and class in America, Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty is both highly imaginative and philosophical in scope.” —Refinery29
“Ausubel’s second novel explores how what we inherit – money, tradition, status – shapes our lives. And she shows us the surprising ways love endures.” — BBC
“Ausubel’s imaginative narrative makes for a compelling modern day fairytale.” — Real Simple
“The novel opens into a magical force field.” —Sara Nelson, The Amazon Book Review
“Follows what happens when everything you took for granted suddenly, dramatically, no longer exists.” —HelloGiggles
“This book brings the 1960s and ’70s nuclear family to life in a series of sometimes tragic and sometimes darkly comic events.” —Fodors, What To Read on Your Summer Vacation
“This is the book about class and love that I’ve been waiting for. A riches-to-rags story with all the twists and unraveling you could want, embroidered divine in the wizardy mind of Ramona Ausubel, whose imagination and music are simply peerless. A gorgeous and moving must-read!” —Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold, Fame, Citrus and Battleborn
“Ramona Ausubel has given us a brilliantly imagined novel about family and fortune and the hidden knots between. You’re holding a book brimming with life by an author bursting with talent.” —Maggie Shipstead, author of Seating Arrangements and Astonish Me
“Ausubel’s magical, engrossing prose style perfectly fits this magical, engrossing story.” — Kirkus (Starred Review)
“A wild wonder of a novel.” —Laura van den Berg, author of The Isle of Youth and Find Me
“With characters this memorable, the pages almost turn themselves.”—Publishers Weekly
Named a Must Read by Time, Harper’s Bazaar, Huffington Post and many others.