by Rumaan Alam
ONE OF THE NEW YORKER’S “BEST BOOKS WE’VE READ IN 2024”
ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST'S 50 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2024
ONE OF KIRKUS’S “BEST BOOK CLUB FICTION OF 2024”
ONE OF REAL SIMPLE’S BEST BOOKS OF 2O24
“Rumaan Alam is a rarity...Entitlement — a psychological thriller that subtly turns into a vicious exposé of affluent liberalism— also sneaks up on you, and wins you over.”—The New York Times
"A brilliant exploration of extreme wealth and how it bends the lives of those close to it... Alam keeps things crystal clear and speedway fast."
—The Boston Globe
“Should come with an undertow warning.”
—Louise Erdrich
A novel of money and morality from the New York Times bestselling author of Leave the World Behind
Brooke wants. She isn’t in need, but there are things she wants. A sense of purpose, for instance. She wants to make a difference in the world, to impress her mother along the way, to spend time with friends and secure her independence. Her job assisting an octogenarian billionaire in his quest to give away a vast fortune could help her achieve many of these goals. It may inspire new desires as well: proximity to wealth turns out to be nothing less than transformative. What is money, really, but a kind of belief?
Taut, unsettling, and alive to the seductive distortions of money, Entitlement is a riveting tale for our new gilded age, a story that confidently considers questions about need and worth, race and privilege, philanthropy and generosity, passion and obsession. It is a provocative, propulsive novel about the American imagination.
ONE OF THE NEW YORKER’S “BEST BOOKS WE’VE READ IN 2024”
ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST'S 50 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2024
ONE OF KIRKUS’S “BEST BOOK CLUB FICTION OF 2024”
ONE OF REAL SIMPLE’S BEST BOOKS OF 2O24
“Rumaan Alam is a rarity...Entitlement — a psychological thriller that subtly turns into a vicious exposé of affluent liberalism— also sneaks up on you, and wins you over.”—The New York Times
"A brilliant exploration of extreme wealth and how it bends the lives of those close to it... Alam keeps things crystal clear and speedway fast."
—The Boston Globe
“Should come with an undertow warning.”
—Louise Erdrich
A novel of money and morality from the New York Times bestselling author of Leave the World Behind
Brooke wants. She isn’t in need, but there are things she wants. A sense of purpose, for instance. She wants to make a difference in the world, to impress her mother along the way, to spend time with friends and secure her independence. Her job assisting an octogenarian billionaire in his quest to give away a vast fortune could help her achieve many of these goals. It may inspire new desires as well: proximity to wealth turns out to be nothing less than transformative. What is money, really, but a kind of belief?
Taut, unsettling, and alive to the seductive distortions of money, Entitlement is a riveting tale for our new gilded age, a story that confidently considers questions about need and worth, race and privilege, philanthropy and generosity, passion and obsession. It is a provocative, propulsive novel about the American imagination.
Reviews-
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July 8, 2024
Alam (Leave the World Behind) delivers an unsettling novel about a 30-something middle-class Black New Yorker unmoored by her billionaire boss’s wealth and power. After spending nine years teaching at a Bronx charter school, Brooke Orr hopes to fulfill her passion for arts education by taking an administrative job at a foundation set up by businessman Asher Jaffee, 83, to disperse his fortune. Brooke impresses Asher with her dedication, and he tasks her with finding a group to fund, prompting Brooke to convince the skeptical director of a Brooklyn children’s dance company to accept an award in the event that Asher deems the company worthy of a grant. The more Brooke puts into her job, the less connected she is to her old life, to the point that she feels nothing after hearing a close family friend has died in a car accident. As Brooke spends more time with Asher, she becomes convinced she’s “entitled” to her own “place in the world,” a reasonable belief that grows warped as she fixates on the Manhattan apartment she’s trying to buy but can’t afford. As she progresses on her quest to get what she deserves, the slow-burn narrative builds to a strange and provocative crisis point. Readers will want to stick around for Brooke’s reckoning. Agent: Julie Barer, Book Group. -
This novel tells the story of a mega-rich octogenarian and a 33-year-old Black woman. Audie Award winner Nicole Lewis is an excellent narrator who does subtle gradations of tone and tempo. She makes an excellent guide to the gilded world in this story of wealth and aspiration, race and power. The plot involves Vassar-educated Brooke Orr; Lewis gets her sound and style. Orr goes to work for wealthy philanthropist Asher Jaffee to help him give away his billions. Asher takes a real interest in Brooke, and this provides one of the many ambiguities in the story. Alam gets the details of privilege: Frankenthaler and Diebenkorn art in an enormous modern apartment, for example. This often dark story stays with the listener. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
