Promotional Information

The new novel from the critically acclaimed author of The Divorce Papers, about a wealthy, pedigreed Manhattan family that comes undone after the death of their patriarch, now in paperback.

About the Author

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 ofThe Heirs andThe Divorce Papers.She lives in New York City with her husband.

Reviews

“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
 
“Unstoppably entertaining and astute, it describes its characters—the charismatic fauna of old, upper-class New York—with a strange, merciless sympathy.”—Joseph O’Neill, author of Netherland and The Dog
 
“Speaking of intrigue, who doesn’t love a good family drama? As the next step to summer reading bliss, turn off daytime TV and pick up a book that gives you the same kind of thrill without making you feel your brain’s turned to junk. Rieger’s The Heirs is about the secrets and lies that threaten to consume the Falkes family, moneyed Manhattanites with a flawless educational pedigree.”—Brit + Co

“A thoroughly engaging family saga and an incisive probe into the upper crust of Manhattan society—a slice of Edith Wharton transported to the twenty-first century . . . Rieger’s intimate look at this intriguing family is an erudite and witty take on a social circle that most readers can only imagine.”—BookPage

“Brilliantly constructed and flawlessly written . . . an emotional and satisfying story of how a complicated family and their outliers handle life’s most pivotal moments.”—Library Journal, starred review
 
“[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