The Broken Places

Vancouver. A day like any other. Kyle, a successful cosmetic surgeon, is punishing himself with a sprint up a mountain. Charlotte, wife of a tech tycoon, is combing the farm belt for local cheese and a sense of purpose. Back in the city their families go about their business: landscaping, negotiating deals, skipping school. Its a day like any otheruntil suddenly its not. When the earthquake hits, the city erupts in chaos and fear. Kyles and Charlottes families, along with two passersby, are thrown together in an oceanfront mansion. The catastrophe and conflicts that beset these wildly different people expose the fault lines beneath their relationships, as they question everything in an effort to survive and reunite with their loved ones stranded outside the city. Frances Pecks debut novel recalls the humanism of Ann Patchett while interrogating the excesses of the nouveau riche like Emily St. John Mandel and Douglas Coupland.