Winner

By: Teddy Wayne

Published by HarperCollins Publishers, 2025-06-03

<p>A New York Times Book Review and Washington Post "Top-10 Thriller of the Year"</p> <p>A New Yorker, Vogue, Esquire, Elle, and Bookshop.org "Best Book of the Year'</p> <p>Conor O'Toole has never been anywhere like Cutters Neck, a gated community near Cape Cod. It's a sweet deal for the summer: in exchange for tennis lessons, he receives free lodging in a luxurious guest cottage, far from the cramped Yonkers apartment he shares with his diabetic mother.</p> <p>In this oceanfront paradise, however, new clients prove hard to come by, and Conor has bills to pay. When Catherine, a sharp-tongued divorcée, offers double his usual rate, he soon realizes she is expecting additional, off the court services for her money, and Conor tumbles into a secret erotic affair unlike anything he's experienced before.</p> <p>Despite his steamy flings with a woman twice his age, he simultaneously finds himself falling for an artsy, outspoken girl he meets on the beach. With cautious, strategic planning, Conor somehow manages this tangled web--until he makes one final, irreversible mistake.</p> <p>A dark, explosive literary thriller that brilliantly skewers the elite, Whiting Award winner Teddy Wayne's unputdownable novel is cinematic, shocking, and a psychological masterpiece.</p>