272 pages | 23rd May, 2017 | Fiction | Women's Fiction; Literary Fiction
AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Brilliantly wrought, incisive, and stirring, The Heirs tells the story of an upper-crust Manhattan family coming undone after the death of their patriarch.
When English-born lawyer Rupert Falkes dies, his wife and five adult sons are bereft—even more so when six months later, their grieving is interrupted by an unknown woman suing Rupert’s estate, claiming that he was also the father to her two sons.
The Falkes brothers are pitched into turmoil, at once missing their father and feeling betrayed by him. In disconcerting contrast, their mother, Eleanor, is cool and calm, showing preternatural composure. Eleanor and Rupert had made an admirable life together, and they were proud of their handsome, talented sons: Harry, a brash law professor; Will, a savvy Hollywood agent; Sam, an astute doctor and scientific researcher; Jack, a jazz trumpet prodigy; Tom, a public-spirited federal prosecutor. The brothers see their identity and success as inextricably tied to family loyalty—a loyalty they always believed their father shared.
Struggling to reclaim their identity, the brothers find Eleanor’s sympathy toward the woman and her sons confounding, and they begin to question whether they knew either of their parents at all.
"Both original and absorbing—and a whole lot of fun . . . The major players are so richly alive, their search for the truth so absorbing, that you might tear some pages in your rush to turn them."
The New York Times Book Review
"Elegant literary prose and supremely likeable characters make this a must-read."
People
"Fans of Salinger’s stories about Manhattan’s elite will enjoy this novel about privileged siblings who grapple with the state of their inheritance and long-held secrets that emerge in the wake of their father’s death."
InStyle
"Love and sex and money and betrayal make for excellent storytelling. And The Heirs has all of that. . . . As an exploration of the hidden lives of Rupert and Eleanor Falkes, it is a posh soap opera written by Fitzgerald and the Brontës. As a window on a family shaken by death, it is The Royal Tenenbaums, polished up and moved across town. But its beauty, economy, and expensive wit is all its own."
NPR
"Susan Rieger is thrillingly erudite and compulsively readable, a satisfying combination hard to find in any section of the bookstore. The Heirs is an absorbing page-turner, full of sex and secrets, and I loved getting to know the entire Falkes clan."
Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of The Vacationers
"[An] assured novel of family, money, and secrets, reminiscent in theme and tone of Edith Wharton . . . just in time for poolside reading, this elegant novel wears its intelligence lightly."
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Rieger wrestles perceptively with difficult questions and . . . shines incrementally increasing light on the Falkes’ extended web of familial and emotional ties, sucking the reader into the tangle of emotions and conflicting interests . . . a tense, introspective account of looking for truth, and instead finding peace."
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Susan Rieger is a graduate of Columbia Law School. She has worked as a residential college dean at Yale and as an associate provost at Columbia. She has taught law to undergraduates at both schools and written frequently about the law for newspapers and magazines. She is the author of The Heirs and The Divorce Papers. She lives in New York City with her husband.
US: Crown
Audio: PRHA