bThe acclaimed author of iThe Borrower ireturns with a dazzlingly original, mordantly witty novel about the secrets of an old-money family and their turn-of-the-century estate, Laurelfield.b br Rebecca Makkai is a writer to watch, as sneakily ambitious as she is unpretentious.br bRichard Russob brMeet the Devohrs Zee, a Marxist literary scholar who detests her parents wealth but nevertheless finds herself living in their carriage house Gracie, her mother, who claims she can tell your lot in life by looking at your teeth and Bruce, her step-father, stockpiling supplies for the Y2K apocalypse and perpetually late for his tee time. Then there s Violet Devohr, Zee s great-grandmother, who they say took her own life somewhere in the vast house, and whose massive oil portrait still hangs in the dining room. brViolet s portrait was known to terrify the artists who resided at the house from the 1920s to the 1950s, when it served as the Laurelfield Arts Colony and this is exactly the period Zee