The Altruists: A Novel

Synopsis

A Vibrant And Perceptive Novel About A Father's Plot To Win Back His Children's Inheritance. Arthur Alter Is In Trouble. A Middling Professor At A Midwestern College, He Can't Afford His Mortgage, He's Exasperated His Much-younger 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--memories That Orbit Francine, The Matriarch Whose Life May Hold The Key To Keeping Them Together. Spanning New York, Paris, Boston, St. Louis, And A Small Desert Outpost In Zimbabwe, The Altruists Is A Darkly Funny (and Ultimately Tender) Family Saga In The Tradition Of Jonathan Franzen And Jeffrey Eugenides, With Shades Of Philip Roth And Zadie Smith. It's A Novel About Money, Privilege, Politics, Campus Culture, Dating, Talk Therapy, Rural Sanitation, Infidelity, Kink, The American Beer Industry, And What It Means To Be A Good Person. Andrew Ridker.