The End of the Day

Clegg (Did You Ever Have a Family) delivers a thoughtful, well-observed story of a patrician New York City family and its Mexican servants. Dana Goss, heir of Edgeweather, her family’s Connecticut estate, has in her old age begun to show signs of Alzheimer’s. As Dana makes the trip to Edgewater from her townhouse in the city for the first time in 30 years, Clegg alternates the short chapters with views into in the lives of Dana’s childhood best friend Jackie, and Lupita Lopez, the house manager’s daughter, who grew up in the shadow of Dana and Jackie’s friendship and privilege. In the second part, Clegg swings down to present-day Philadelphia, where Hap, a journalist, sits by his father’s deathbed. Readers will wonder about Hap’s connection to the other characters, and where the story is going, though Dana knows the answer, and her revelations will upend everything. As the pieces come together, little is as it seems—on first, or even second, sight. The splendid prose and orchestrated maneuvering will keep readers turning the pages and send them back to the beginning, to read it all over again. Agent: Claudia Ballard, William Morris Endeavor. (Sept.)