The Nest

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What to expect

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

‘I couldn't stop reading or caring about the juicy and dysfunctional Plumb family’ AMY POEHLER

‘A masterfully constructed, darkly comic, and immensely captivating tale…Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney is a real talent’ ELIZABETH GILBERT

A sharp and funny debut about a wonderfully dysfunctional New York family and the three grown-up siblings fighting to save the family money pot – the ‘nest’ – as their oldest brother threatens to lose it all.

When Leo Plumb drives off drunk from a party in a sports car with a nineteen-year-old waitress in tow, to the moral and legal fallout must be added the horrible inconvenience to his brother and sisters. Leo’s rehab costs have severely depleted ‘the nest’ – the family’s joint trust fund that would have cut them loose from their myriad financial issues.

For Melody, a suburban wife and mother, it was to cover both an unwieldy mortgage and her daughters’ college tuition. Antiques dealer Jack has secretly borrowed against the beach cottage he shares with his husband. And Beatrice, a once-promising short story writer, can’t seem to finish her overdue novel.

Brought together as never before, the Plumb siblings must grapple with old resentments, present-day truths, and the significant emotional and financial toll of the accident, as well as finally acknowledging the choices they have made in their own lives.

Ferociously astute, warm and funny, The Nest is a brilliant debut chronicling the hilarity and savagery of family life.

Critics Review

  • ‘Relentlessly entertaining’ Guardian

    ‘In her intoxicating first novel, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney has written an epic family story that unfolds in a deeply personal way. The Nest is a fast moving train and Sweeney’s writing dares us to keep up’ AMY POEHLER

    ‘A masterfully constructed, darkly comic, and immensely captivating tale…Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney is a real talent, and I am incredibly impressed by this book’ ELIZABETH GILBERT

    ‘Breezy, light-footed debut . . . plenty of tart observations to savour in this enjoyable tale of flawed, self-absorbed characters trying to find their way in a newly uncertain world’ Daily Mail

    ‘[A] generous, absorbing novel … a wise, affectionate study of how expectations play out in our lives … A fetching debut from an author who knows her city, its people, and their hearts’ Kirkus Reviews

    ‘A wry look at the importance of money in our lives … D’Aprix Sweeney’s characters might be imperfect and desperate, but it’s their desperation that makes them likeable’ Stylist

    ‘Darkly funny’ Heat

    ‘A wise, funny, compassionate family drama, full of irresistible surprises, witty conversations, and necessary emotional truths’ JAMI ATTENBERG, author of The Middlesteins

    ‘This dysfunctional family novel has best-seller potential written all over it. You’ll find it’s certainly every bit as entertaining as a movie, too, and impossibly witty to boot’ ELLE, 16 Novels by Women Everyone Will Be Talking About In 2016

    ‘Humor and delightful irony abound in this lively first novel’ New York Times Book Review

    ‘A comedy of filial greed and affection … Sweeney knows these people well, and she captures them in short scenes that glow with the confidence of an experienced comic writer. For all the acerbic humor that Sweeney wrings from this family’s self-absorption, she maintains a refreshing balance of tenderness … HBO, if you’re not considering a TV version, why not?’ Washington Post

    ‘Glorious’ Kirkus Reviews

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