David and Ellie didn’t realise how much they had missed their friends, two other couples who had moved out of their modest neighbourhood in a desert city for the comforts of the suburbs, until the day of Donald Trump’s election. Separated also from their daughter who lived hours away in California, they were in a funk. But, when Ellie discovers a repellent offering floating in the small Jacuzzi in their backyard, David is blindsided. Little does he know this is but the first in a chain of grisly events that will play out in their lives with devastating consequences. In this darkly humorous, incisive and absorbing political parable, written with the remarkable humanity he’s beloved for, Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Russo probes how deeply, yet imperceptibly, fissures can form amongst friends, neighbours and families. An ebook short.
