Petty Intrigues: A Novel

A dazzling rag-tag family, each in a state of disarray, descend upon their aunt’s stately London home—from the acclaimed author of Happy Hour, a debut praised as “confident, charismatic and alive to the pleasure of observation” (The New York Times)

If Jean knew her life would be disrupted, she would have never invited them to stay.

Jean, a recently divorced former ballerina, has replaced her dedication to dance with a dedication to tending to her house—barely leaving it, in fact. The house itself came with her divorce, an outlandish parting gift from her ex-husband. It’s big and grand, filled with green moiré upholstery in a coveted London zip-code, and Jean keeps it rigorously clean, well-kept, and quiet. But when her nieces arrive at her doorstep, Jean finds the carefully constructed order of her new domestic life disrupted in one fell swoop.

First comes Dizzi, ostensibly in town to rehearse a play. She’s spent the past few years caring for her ailing grandfather, a father figure to her, but now that he’s passed, she's come to London in hopes of finding purpose. Then comes her sister Delta, an intrepid party girl who has just secured a monumental solo exhibit in New York City. She shows up reeling from a break-up—with the air of someone fleeing. And then there's Greer, Jean’s best friend. An interior decorator and recovering hedonist with a penchant for all things beautiful, Greer stops by every day just to make sure they're all getting on.  

Jean is reluctant to let them in, but it is a big house, after all, and it became hers at no cost. Isn’t it her duty to keep its doors open? And yet, sharing a home is never easy. Jean, Dizzi, and Delta are each artists, each at different points of being undone. As old wounds resurface and secrets come out, they must each reckon with the roles set out for them—and learn to break free of expectations, together, under one roof.

Imbued with Marlowe Granados’s crackling, “effervescent” (The New Yorker) style, Petty Intrigues is a singular novel of what it takes to excavate and reconnect to ambition, and build a full, satisfying, creative life in the most unexpected of places.