3.0
The Rich People Have Gone Away
ByPublisher Description
AN AUDACIOUS BOOK CLUB PICK • A diverse group of New Yorkers are brought together by the search for a missing woman—in this electric novel of secrets, connection, and community.
“Cinematic, preternaturally humane, and absolutely unputdownable—I just loved it.”—Claire Lombardo, People “What Your Favorite Authors are Reading This Summer”
“Riveting.”—Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Time, Kirkus Reviews
Brooklyn, 2020. Theo Harper and his pregnant wife, Darla, head upstate to their summer cottage to wait out the lockdown. Not everyone in their upscale Park Slope building has this privilege: not Xavier, the teenager in the Cardi B T-shirt, nor Darla’s best friend, Ruby, and her partner, Katsumi, who stay behind to save their Michelin-starred restaurant.
During an upstate hike on the aptly named Devil’s Path, Theo divulges a long-held secret—and when Darla disappears after the ensuing argument, he finds himself the prime suspect. As Darla’s and Theo’s families and friends come together to search for her, with Ruby and Katsumi stepping in to broker peace, past and present collide with startling consequences.
Set against the pulse of an ever-changing city, The Rich People Have Gone Away connects the lives of ordinary New Yorkers to tell a powerful story of hope, love, and inequity in our times—while reminding us that no one leaves the past behind completely.
“Cinematic, preternaturally humane, and absolutely unputdownable—I just loved it.”—Claire Lombardo, People “What Your Favorite Authors are Reading This Summer”
“Riveting.”—Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Time, Kirkus Reviews
Brooklyn, 2020. Theo Harper and his pregnant wife, Darla, head upstate to their summer cottage to wait out the lockdown. Not everyone in their upscale Park Slope building has this privilege: not Xavier, the teenager in the Cardi B T-shirt, nor Darla’s best friend, Ruby, and her partner, Katsumi, who stay behind to save their Michelin-starred restaurant.
During an upstate hike on the aptly named Devil’s Path, Theo divulges a long-held secret—and when Darla disappears after the ensuing argument, he finds himself the prime suspect. As Darla’s and Theo’s families and friends come together to search for her, with Ruby and Katsumi stepping in to broker peace, past and present collide with startling consequences.
Set against the pulse of an ever-changing city, The Rich People Have Gone Away connects the lives of ordinary New Yorkers to tell a powerful story of hope, love, and inequity in our times—while reminding us that no one leaves the past behind completely.
Download the free Fable app
Stay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
Rate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
Curate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesStay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building toolRate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tagsCurate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Rich People Have Gone Away Reviews
3.0
“In a different mood maybe I would’ve liked this… I didn’t really realize that it would take place during Covid and as I am currently recovering from the flu, I did not like that reminder. I also really hated the opening chapter because I can’t immediately buy in to sex crazed characters without some serious world building and character development first.”
“I expected a thrillerish contemporary read, and then I open the book and *gasp* it’s taking place during COVID. That was the first hurdle I had to get over.
Then, we get a lot of backstory about characters that ends up never really meaning anything. I hate backstory for some reason, and when it’s inconsequential it’s even worse.
The characters are hatable (not necessarily in a bad way), the timeline is hatable (in a bad way, I wasn’t expecting COVID to be such a huge component of the book), and the writing isn’t necessarily bad, but the author does hate commas (and I am a comma advocate).
I guess I just wouldn’t recommend but I’m not too pissed that I read it.
also shoutout to Greer, the only character that spoke to me.”
About Regina Porter
Regina Porter is an award-winning playwright and author of The Travelers, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and longlisted for the Orwell Prize for political fiction. A graduate of the MFA fiction program at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, her writing has been published in the Harvard Review, Tin House, and the Oxford American.
Other books by Regina Porter
Start a Book Club
Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!FAQ
Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?
Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?
How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?
Do you sell physical books too?
Are book clubs free to join on Fable?
How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?
