The New People: A Novel

The New People: A Novel

• A searing and strikingly intimate debut set in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, about a newly married lesbian couple who move into a flipped foreclosure, unaware that the former homeowners are still living in the attic.
  
  Months after the housing bubble bursts, newlywed Chicagoans Emma and Rachel move into a charming little house in a conservative Indiana college town, hoping for a fresh start after a painful miscarriage. As Rachel immerses herself in her new role as a tenure-track professor and bestselling novelist, adjunct Emma struggles in the shadow of her wife’s success. Desperate to build something of her own, Emma secretly pursues IVF, even as Rachel insists they wait to have children. The house, initially a symbol of new beginnings, becomes a refuge for Emma from the town she’s convinced is set against her—until strange occurrences make her question whether she and her wife are truly alone.
  
  They aren’t.
  
  Charlotte and Dirk, the former homeowners, are secretly living in the attic above Emma and Rachel’s attached garage. Dispossessed by the recession and anxious about her husband’s declining health, Charlotte listens to the interlopers below, and her resentment steadily grows. What starts as small acts of defiance—missing food, flipped breakers in the fuse box, subtle scratches in the furniture—soon becomes sabotage. But when her campaign to drive out the couple goes too far, Charlotte’s and Emma’s stories converge in an explosive climax that will reveal the lengths people will go to reclaim what they’ve lost.Andrea Uptmorreceived her MFA in fiction at the University of Minnesota, and her short fiction has been published inMcSweeney’s,PANK, andThe Masters Review, among others. She lives in the Chicago area with her family. 
   

  When Chicagoans Emma and Rachel move into a charming house in a conservative Indiana town during the housing crisis, a series of strange occurrences make them question whether they are truly alone. Unbeknownst to them, the former homeowners, Charlotte and Dirk, continue to live secretly in the attic above the garage after being dispossessed by the recession. The New People is a deftly crafted debut that explores the themes of ownership, infertility, and our connection to one another with utmost confidence.

  Chicago Review of Books

  Uptmor moves through examinations of privilege and identity, extraction and gentrification, politics and parenthood, holding it all with a delicate sense of emotion&.With a sharp sense of humor and wry insights into the many ways the myth of the American Dream leaves victims in its wake.The New People is a carefully crafted story of what makes a house a home: the people that share it, to be sure, but also the community built (or not) around it and the many marks left, both good and bad, on the spaces inhabited. 

  Shelf Awareness (starred)

  Uptmors ambitious first novel renders the dangers of divisiveness, rigidity, and lack of communication through the experience of two married couples who could not be less alike&Moments of high comedy and real pathos ensue...Using upbeat escapism, Uptmor confounds expectations to expose the darker realities of American life.

  Kirkus Reviews (starred)

  The heart of this book is about marriage: what it is, what it has been, and what it can be&.Uptmor skillfully weaves Charlotte and Emmas perspectives to both mirror and conflict with each other. [I] Recommend this debut to anyone interested in the micro-interactions that can make or break a relationship.

  Booklist (starred review)

  Uptmor explores what happens to a couple incapable of communicating as they try to keep their heads above water financially. Its sincere and doesnt shy away from

• Uptmor, Andrea
• ISBN: 9780316602211