[Hoby] might have just written the defining New York City novel of our fraught socially
anxious and politically tumultuous times. -Interview A powerful novel of youth desire and
moral conflict as a young man is seduced by the mirage of glamour-at a terrible cost Arriving
in New York City for an internship at an elite but fading magazine Luca feels invisible: smart
but not worldly privileged but broke and uncertain how to navigate a new era of social
change. Among his peers is Zara a young Black woman whose sharp wit and frank views on
injustice create tensions in the office especially in the wake of a shock election that's
irrevocably destabilized American life. In the months that follow as the streets of New York
fill with pink-hatted protesters and the magazine faces a changing of the guard Luca is taken
under the wing of an attractive and wealthy white couple-Paula a prominent artist and Jason
her filmmaker husband-whose lifestyle he finds both alien and alluring. With the coming of
summer Luca is swept up in the fever dream of their marriage accepting an invitation to join
the couple and their children at their beach house and nurturing an infatuation both
frustrating and dangerous. Only after he learns of a spectacular tragedy in the city he has
left behind does he begin to realize the moral consequences of his allegiances. In language at
once lyrical and incisive Virtue offers a clear-eyed and unsettling story of the allure of
privilege and the costs of complacency from a writer of astonishing acuity and vision. Story
Locale: New York City Maine.
