Shelter in Place by David Leavitt

It is the Saturday after the 2016 presidential election, and in a plush weekend house in Connecticut, a group of New Yorkers has gathered to recover from what they consider the greatest political catastrophe of their lives. Liberal and like-minded, the friends have come to the countryside in the hope of restoring the bubble in which they have grown used to living.

Moving through her days accompanied by a carefully curated salon, Eva Lindquist is a generous hostess with an obsession for decorating. Yet when, in her avidity to secure shelter for herself, she persuades her husband to buy a grand if dilapidated apartment in Venice, she unwittingly sets off the chain of events that will propel him to venture outside the bubble and embark on an unexpected love affair.

A slyly comic look at the shelter industry, Shelter in Place is a novel about house and home, furniture and rooms, safety and freedom and the insidious ways in which political upheaval can undermine even the most seemingly impregnable foundations.
 
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"A wickedly funny and emotionally expansive novel about all the bewildering ways we seek solace from the people and things that surround us” –  Jenny Offill
 
“Very funny and unexpected, a material response to our times, plush as velvet” –  Rachel Cusk, 
 
“There is an art to writing about unlikable people while still engaging the reader to invest in their indulgence, vanity and, yes, happiness. Leavitt unfurls a droll drawing-room pastiche that evokes la dolce vita as 'Seinfeld' episode … It's Aaron Sorkin on steroids. And surprisingly compelling ... Leavitt, cleverly crafting a New Yorker cartoon in words, proves there is still some navel-gazing worth reading” –  New York Times Book Review
 
“I've long been a fan of David Leavitt's work, for its range, its depth, its smarts and its humour. He is a phenomenal and prescient writer” –  Justin Torres, 
 
“Leavitt is a master stylist ... An important writer. He is the rarest of all birds – a man of letters” –  Edmund White,