Bottle Train: A Novel

A contemporary retelling of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth with the high-octane energy of Bright Lights, Big City about a fashion model striving to secure her place within an elite society

In 2010 New York City, runway model and former it girl Lila Gao is trying to cash in on her beauty before time and money run out. Her father’s sudden death has sent her reeling, and her once-enviable career has stalled. As one of the few biracial Asian American fashion models, Lila’s made a living off her unique appearance since the age of sixteen, but this kind of currency won’t last forever.

In order to make rent, Lila needs to stage a comeback, so she reemerges onto the VIP nightlife scene where her magnetic old flame works as a club promoter. Together they get entangled with a wealthy social climber who’s determined to insert herself into their exclusive circle, no matter the cost. As New York Fashion Week approaches, Lila lands the opportunity to walk in a major designer’s show, while reluctantly entertaining prospective suitors as her backup plan. But when a lavish night out spirals out of control, Lila is reminded that her coveted world can’t exist without someone’s downfall.

With the darkly glamorous, cutthroat world of high fashion and downtown nightlife transposed onto the grand scale of a new American Gilded Age, Bottle Train is an opulent cracked mirror held up to New York’s postrecession years of decadence, excess, and inequality.