National Bestseller An exhilarating novel about one American family and the dark moment that shatters their suburban paradise, from the New York Times bestselling author of Fleishman Is in Trouble New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice New York Magazines Beach Read Book Club Pick Belletrist Book Club Pick Joins the pantheon of great American novels. Los Angeles Times Exuberant and absorbing . . . a big old-fashioned social novel. The Atlantic Were we gangsters? No. But did we know how to start a fire? In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse, and the family moves on with their lives, resuming their prized places in the saga of the American dream, comforted in the realization that though their money may have been what endangered them, it is also what assured them their safety. But now, nearly forty years later, it's clear that perhaps nobody ever got over anything, after all. Carl has spent the ensuing years secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping, while his wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband's emotional health. Their three grown children aren't doing much better …