'Reading Andrew Ridker's debut novel you soon realise you're in the presence of a new talent.'
The TimesArthur Alter is in trouble. A middling professor at a Midwestern college he can't
afford his mortgage he's exasperated his new girlfriend and his kids won't speak to him. And
then there's the money - the small fortune his late wife Francine kept secret which she
bequeathed directly to his children.Those children are Ethan an anxious recluse living off his
mother's money on a choice plot of Brooklyn real estate and Maggie a would-be do-gooder
trying to fashion herself a noble life of self-imposed poverty. On the verge of losing the
family home Arthur invites his children back to St. Louis under the guise of a reconciliation.
But in doing so he unwittingly unleashes a Pandora's Box of age-old resentments and
long-buried memories.
