“A perfect novel for these times and all times, the single textual artifact from the pandemic era I would place in a time capsule as a representation of all that is good and true and beautiful about literature.”—Molly Young, The New York Times

Eight friends, one country house, four romances, and six months in isolation—a novel about love, friendship, family, and betrayal hailed as “a masterpiece” (Andrew Sean Greer) and “a powerful fable of our broken time” (Salman Rushdie)

It’s March 2020 and a calamity is unfolding. A group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months, new friendships and romances will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaluate whom they love and what matters most. The unlikely cast of characters includes a Russian-born novelist; his Russian-born psychiatrist wife; their...