The Altruists

''Reading Andrew Ridker’s debut novel, you soon realise you’re in the presence of a new talent.'' The TimesArthur Alter is in trouble. A middling professor at a Midwestern college, he can''t afford his mortgage, he''s exasperated his new girlfriend, and his kids won''t speak to him. And then there''s the money – the small fortune his late wife Francine kept secret, which she bequeathed directly to his children. Those children are Ethan, an anxious recluse living off his mother''s money on a choice plot of Brooklyn real estate; and Maggie, a would-be do-gooder trying to fashion herself a noble life of self-imposed poverty. On the verge of losing the family home, Arthur invites his children back to St. Louis under the guise of a reconciliation. But in doing so, he unwittingly unleashes a Pandora''s Box of age-old resentments and long-buried memories. Spanning New York, Paris, Boston, St. Louis, and a small desert outpost in Zimbabwe, The Altruists is a razor-sharp, darkly funny family saga from a sparkling new talent.