{"product_id":"9780812993226","title":"The Locals: A Novel","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Summons up a small American town at precisely the right moment in our history . . . a bold, vital, and view-expanding novel.”—George Saunders\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eA rural working-class New England town elects as its mayor a New York hedge fund millionaire in this inspired novel for our times—fiction in the tradition of Jonathan Franzen and Jennifer Egan.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMark Firth is a contractor and home restorer in Howland, Massachusetts, who feels opportunity passing his family by. After being swindled by a financial advisor, what future can Mark promise his wife, Karen, and their young daughter, Haley? He finds himself envying the wealthy weekenders in his community whose houses sit empty all winter.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhilip Hadi used to be one of these people. But in the nervous days after 9\/11 he flees New York and hires Mark to turn his Howland home into a year-round “secure location” from which he can manage billions of dollars of other people’s money. The collision of these two men’s very different worlds—rural vs. urban, middle class vs. wealthy—is the engine of Jonathan Dee’s powerful new novel.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInspired by Hadi, Mark looks around for a surefire investment: the mid-decade housing boom. Over Karen’s objections, and teaming up with his troubled brother, Gerry, Mark starts buying up local property with cheap debt. Then the town’s first selectman dies suddenly, and Hadi volunteers for office. He soon begins subtly transforming Howland in his image—with unexpected results for Mark and his extended family.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHere are the dramas of twenty-first-century America—rising inequality, working class decline, a new authoritarianism—played out in the classic setting of some of our greatest novels: the small town. \u003ci\u003eThe Locals\u003c\/i\u003e is that rare work of fiction capable of capturing a fraught American moment in real time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAdvance praise for \u003ci\u003eThe Locals\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The residents of a small town in the Berkshires have their world overturned by a billionaire in their midst. . . . [\u003ci\u003eThe Locals\u003c\/i\u003e] plays both as political allegory and kaleidoscopic character study. An absorbing panorama of small-town life and a study of democracy in miniature.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In this moving study of how the housing bubble’s burst sets a small town’s citizens against each other, Jonathan Dee tells a must-read story for our age. Class struggle, tyranny, America’s disillusionment after 9\/11—\u003ci\u003eThe Locals\u003c\/i\u003e creates a delicately drawn world impossible to forget.”\u003cb\u003e—Mary Karr, New York Times bestselling author of\u003ci\u003e The Liar’s Club \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Lit\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“There could not be a more timely novel than \u003ci\u003eThe Locals\u003c\/i\u003e. It examines the American self and American selfishness from 9\/11 until today. Jonathan Dee has given us a master class in empathy and compassion, a vital book.”\u003cb\u003e—Nathan Hill, author of\u003ci\u003e The Nix\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Locals\u003c\/i\u003e might be the first great Occupy novel of the twenty-first century.”\u003cb\u003e—Rachel Kushner, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of\u003ci\u003e The Flamethrowers\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Locals\u003c\/i\u003e is an absolutely riveting novel that dares to prod us awake. Whoever has ears let them hear—indeed.”\u003cb\u003e—Joy Williams, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Visiting Privilege\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Blackly comic, effortlessly authoritative, \u003ci\u003eThe Locals\u003c\/i\u003e is almost criminal in its perceptiveness about the screwed state of the American union. Jonathan Dee is a modern American master.”\u003cb\u003e—Joseph O’Neill, author of \u003ci\u003eNetherland\u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e The Dog\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47007809536240,"sku":"9780812993226","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780812993226_p0.jpg?v=1763743975","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780812993226","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}