From Perfectly Impossible author Elizabeth Topp comes an unforgettably searing novel about a band of mothers who are forced to reckon with themselves after the unexpected loss of one of their own.
When beautiful and successful Susan Harris jumps from the roof of her apartment building, she sets a tremor through her New York City mothers’ group that forces them all to look at one another with new cynicism: How could this have happened right under their noses? To one of them? Between her death and the harrowing private school admission season on the horizon, these women are forced to explore the hard truths about themselves.
Vic, a single mom with literary aspirations, is shocked and confused by the unexpected death of her best friend.
Bhavna, a makeup executive, tries to process Susan’s death while sacrificing everything to get her son into the school of his dreams.
Kara’s sister died by suicide years earlier, so she’s been down this road before���or so it seems.
Penelope and Amy are navigating a business deal when Susan dies, but is it worth the toll on their families?
And how will Chandice, battling cancer, come to terms with Susan’s death?
For these women, the loss of a fellow mother forces them to reexamine who they really are while the futures of their children hang in the balance.
Genre: Literary Fiction
When beautiful and successful Susan Harris jumps from the roof of her apartment building, she sets a tremor through her New York City mothers’ group that forces them all to look at one another with new cynicism: How could this have happened right under their noses? To one of them? Between her death and the harrowing private school admission season on the horizon, these women are forced to explore the hard truths about themselves.
Vic, a single mom with literary aspirations, is shocked and confused by the unexpected death of her best friend.
Bhavna, a makeup executive, tries to process Susan’s death while sacrificing everything to get her son into the school of his dreams.
Kara’s sister died by suicide years earlier, so she’s been down this road before���or so it seems.
Penelope and Amy are navigating a business deal when Susan dies, but is it worth the toll on their families?
And how will Chandice, battling cancer, come to terms with Susan’s death?
For these women, the loss of a fellow mother forces them to reexamine who they really are while the futures of their children hang in the balance.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Liz Topp brilliantly gets into the minds of five different women as they deal with the pride-swallowing process of applying to kindergarten in New York City. What could have been a predictable jaunt is made fresh and intriguing with a plot twist in the first chapter. You won't be able to put it down until the last." - Laurie Gelman
"With echoes of Big Little Lies, City People offers a sharply observed portrait of Manhattan private school culture, disrupted by one mother's hidden pain and tragedy." - Robin Kirman
"In this haunting novel, Topp delicately peels back the gilt layers of privilege to expose the true cost of living amid Manhattan's 1 percent, where the things that matter - ease, self-esteem, and love - are always tantalizingly out of reach... promised in the next purchase, the next investment, but never delivered. Topp dares to ask, If your child's admission to an elite school could be an entree into this world, would you take it? Should you?" - Nicola Kraus
"Sharp, unflinching, and dirty with secrets, City People speaks volumes about the isolation of motherhood, the shades of ambition, and the power of loss to push us together or pull us apart. In overlapping narratives that radiate from one cataclysmic event, Elizabeth Topp deftly explores the chasm between public persona and private reality, forcing us to question our own preoccupation with image versus truth." - Nora Zelevansky
"With echoes of Big Little Lies, City People offers a sharply observed portrait of Manhattan private school culture, disrupted by one mother's hidden pain and tragedy." - Robin Kirman
"In this haunting novel, Topp delicately peels back the gilt layers of privilege to expose the true cost of living amid Manhattan's 1 percent, where the things that matter - ease, self-esteem, and love - are always tantalizingly out of reach... promised in the next purchase, the next investment, but never delivered. Topp dares to ask, If your child's admission to an elite school could be an entree into this world, would you take it? Should you?" - Nicola Kraus
"Sharp, unflinching, and dirty with secrets, City People speaks volumes about the isolation of motherhood, the shades of ambition, and the power of loss to push us together or pull us apart. In overlapping narratives that radiate from one cataclysmic event, Elizabeth Topp deftly explores the chasm between public persona and private reality, forcing us to question our own preoccupation with image versus truth." - Nora Zelevansky
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