Town & Country - by Brian Schaefer

Book Synopsis

Residents of a trendy small town face an identity crisis when a congressional race brings long-simmering tensions to a boil, forcing them to confront who they are--and where their loyalties truly lie.

The rural town of Griffin is the kind of place where residents still gather for the annual Memorial Day Parade, meet for milkshakes at the old-time diner, and always find a familiar face at the hardware store. But Griffin is also a community in transition. It has become a hot spot for weekenders--among them, a clique of affluent gay newcomers--seeking refuge from city life and bringing with them an expensive appetite for leisure and design that is ruffling longtime locals.

As these two groups tiptoe around their differences, a heated congressional race between hometown pub owner Chip Riley and wealthy young carpetbagger Paul Banks threatens the détente, ignites deeper divides, and challenges the loyalties of the candidates' families and friends as they become increasingly entangled in each other's lives.

Diane Riley, Chip's wife, is a religiously devout real estate agent conflicted about selling second homes to Paul's acquaintances. Diane and Chip's elder son, Joe, is grieving the recent overdose death of his best friend and spiraling into drugs himself, while their younger son, Will, a newly out college student, is secretly seduced by the indulgent lifestyle of the growing fraternity of city transplants. Meanwhile, Paul's much older husband, Stan, uses the race to give purpose to deep personal pain, even as he begins to doubt Paul's readiness for office.

Spanning the six months from Memorial Day to Election Day, Town & Country takes readers on the roller coaster of a high-stakes campaign, paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of a community in flux, and asks the timeless questions: What do we owe the ones we love, and what do we owe our neighbors?

About the Author

Brian Schaefer contributes regularly to The New York Times and has written for The New Yorker, New York magazine, and more. He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Arts Journalism and was a finalist for the Livingston Award for International Reporting. He earned his master's degree in creative writing from Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv. He and his husband live in New York City and the Hudson Valley. Town & Country is his first novel.