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Sign up todayBetter Homes and Husbands
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A posh New York apartment building on Park Avenue is home to the rich and famous: Sidney Sapphire, the blond anchorwoman of ABC News; Angela Somoza, the gorgeous Nicaraguan jet-setter; Bob Horowitz, the former chairman of the United Jewish Appeals; and the usual collection of banking and industrial CEOs, Wall Street magnates, and white-haired philanthropists. Vinnie Ferretti, the Brooklyn-born doorman, joins the ranks when he becomes a major fashion designer.
The co-op board, rich as clotted cream, sips gin in the afternoons and devises ways to keep out anyone deemed "inappropriate." Stifled resentments come to a head when some suspect the board of more discrimination toward prospective buyers than might be legal.
Better Homes and Husbands is a stylish, richly woven novel about class feuds during the tumultuous period of social change between 1970 and 2000.
Valerie Ann Leff grew up at 1040 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and now lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where she is codirector of the Great Smokies Writing Program at the University of North Carolina–Asheville.
Carrington MacDuffie is a voice actor and recording artist who has narrated over two hundred audiobooks, received numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards, and has been a frequent finalist for the Audie Award, including for her original audiobook, Many Things Invisible. Alongside her narration work, she has released a new album of original songs, Only an Angel.
Reviews
“Leff’s debut has all the elements of an Austenian novel of manners.”
“A novel of manners written with skill and heart and powers of observation as sharp as a boning knife—my idea of heaven.”
“Battles of race, religion, and ideology give an edge to this cozy chronicle. Leff provides plenty of glittering details, but she doesn’t neglect the lives of the building’s service people…Her protagonists are types, but Leff is skilled at teasing out their small idiosyncrasies. Sedate and slightly old-fashioned, this is a warmhearted, generously imagined New York story.”
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