It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
Little Monsters

Little Monsters

PERFECT FOR FANS OF FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE AND THE PAPER PALACE

Summary

'Beautiful, lyrical and unvarnished' MIRANDA COWLEY HELLER, author of THE PAPER PALACE
'Affecting and powerful' OBSERVER
'A page-turner' FINANCIAL TIMES

A riveting novel about Cape Cod, complicated families and long-buried secrets

Summer, Cape Cod. Every member of the Gardner family is hiding a secret. Ken, a businessman with political ambitions, is caught in an internet chatroom and forced into couples therapy. Abby is ashamed to still depend on her brother’s goodwill to sustain her life as an artist. Adam, their father and brilliant oceanographer, decides to come off his bipolar disorder medication to make one last scientific breakthrough. And then there’s Steph: a new person living on the periphery, who harbours a secret that will change everything . . .

'Smart, funny and beautifully written. Brodeur is a brilliant dissector of family relationships, a lyricist of the natural world, and an astute observer of our inner turmoils' MONICA ALI

'Gorgeous, gripping, I couldn't put it down' RUTH OZEKI

Reviews

  • Gorgeous, gripping, I couldn't put it down. Adrienne Brodeur does family intrigue and dysfunction like no one else I know. In Little Monsters, she once again draws back the curtain on a world of seaside wealth and casual privilege, to reveal a family unravelled by the lies, rivalries, secrets, and silences that have bound it together
    Ruth Ozeki

About the author

Adrienne Brodeur

Adrienne Brodeur is the author of the memoir Wild Game, which is in development as a Netflix film. She founded the literary magazine Zoetrope: All-Story with Francis Ford Coppola, and currently serves as executive director of Aspen Words, a literary nonprofit and program of the Aspen Institute. She splits her time between Cambridge and Cape Cod, where she lives with her husband and children.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more