The unfortunates

A sharply written, funny and heart-breaking debut about inheritance, influence, class and power. Who knew the rich deserved our pity?

CeCe Somner, once known for her cruel wit as much as for her tremendous generosity, is now in opulent decline. Afflicted with a rare disease and touched by mortality for the first time, her gilded, bygone values collide with an unforgiving present. As her troubled, spoiled son George and his outsider wife, Iris, struggle to resolve mounting financial and familial troubles, CeCe must face the Somner dynasty's dark legacy; all three must learn what life beyond the long, shimmering shadow cast by the family's past may become. But when George's secrets culminate in an unexpected crime, no riches can put things right for the unfortunate Somners.

The Unfortunatesis a rollicking, wide-ranging story of pharmaceutical drug trials and Wall Street corruption; of pride and prejudice; of paranoia and office politics; of inheritance, influence, class and power. Hilarious and heartbreaking, Sophie McManus's debut is a meditation on love and a contemporary American tragedy of breathtaking scope.