Synopses & Reviews
Triburbia draws the lives of Tribeca's various residents, uncovering the deep betrayals they've committed against themselves and each other. Thrown together by circumstance, a group of fathers meet each morning at a local coffee shop after walking their children to their exclusive school. Over the course of a single year, we learn about their dreams deferred, their secrets and mishaps, their passions and hopes, as they confront terrible truths about ambition, wealth, and sex. Triburbia shows that our choices and their repercussions not only define our own lives, but irrevocably alter the lives of those we love. Wonderfully layered and complex, these linked stories, arranged like puzzle pieces, create a powerful portrait of a group of unlikely friends and their neighborhood in transition.
Review
Starred Review. ""...a compelling little universe that will matter even to outsiders who don't know that Lispenard Street will never be as glamorous as Greenwich Street. "" - Publishers Weekly
A- ""An accomplished journalist, Greenfeld brings a reporter's curiosity and an artist's empathy to his crackling, observant first novel."" - Entertainment Weekly
""Greenfeld has a gift for satire, but it's balanced by a sense of sympathy for his faux bohemians, and by the self-consciousness of most of his characters, who know that they're types even as they insist on their individuality."" - The New York Times
""...a loose, fast, and fun read for the end of summer. And for observers of lower Manhattan social circles, it can also be an especially juicy one."" - W Magazine
""Intriguingly layered and multidimensional, these linked stories, arranged like puzzle pieces, create a powerful portrait of unlikely friends and their neighborhood in transition. Triburbia strikes chords that range from haunting and heartbreaking to darkly funny and deeply poignant."" - The Washington Independent Review of Books
""Here's another book that does better as an audiobook than it does in print... The audiobook is entertaining and clever, and it brings out the strengths of the text."" - Metapsychology.net
""The excellent Triburbia brings to mind such modern masters as Cheever, Updike, and Salter, but Greenfeld delivers his own wonderfully sharp-eyed take on recent American life...This is fiction of the first rank - intense, suspenseful, and relevant in the most urgent way."" - Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
""Pitch-perfect, dry, and smart, this is a vivid portrait of New York, our lives, our loves, and our hearts."" - Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin and The Orchid Thief
""I loved Triburbia, loved dropping in on these wonderful characters with their outsized appetites and ambitions, the lithe and lively prose, the way the book swirls in and out of these lives and maps perfectly a place and a moment in time. Most of all, though, I loved Karl Taro Greenfeld's deft satirical touch, the searing empathy with which he offers up his privileged, damaged people to the world."" - Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins and The Financial Lives of the Poets
""Karl Taro Greenfeld has been writing deeply thoughtful memoirs and firecracker journalism for years, and now he's proven himself equally gifted as a fiction writer. His first novel, Triburbia, should share space on the shelf next to Tom Perrotta's Little Children and Jeffery Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides as it follows a swirling cast of characters who all believe they have found a blessed suburb where everyone is hungry for something - sex, money, real estate, status - none of which prove satisfying."" - Benjamin Percy, author of The Wilding and Refresh, Refresh
""Triburbia is a chorus of voices so sharp, vivid, and finely tuned that New York sounds as if it's speaking directly to us. But more than a portrait of a neighborhood, it's also an absorbing expose of the extravagant preoccupations and dark desires of the new millennium."" - Eleanor Henderson, author of Ten Thousand Saints
""Voyeurism this seductive and satisfying is usually attended with a trespassing charge. Thanks are owed to Karl Taro Greenfeld for removing the nasty middleman of legal repercussion."" - Amelia Gray, author of Threats
""Set on the streets of Manhattan's Tribeca as it transforms from an artist's haven to a place for yuppies and their children, Triburbia showcases Karl Taro Greenfeld's exceptional talent as both a storyteller and satirist."" - Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief
Synopsis
This bold debut novel by the award-winning Greenfeld is a is a vivid portrait of family realities.
Synopsis
A group of fathers meets each morning at a local Tribeca coffee shop after walking their children to school. The sound engineer looks uncomfortably like the guy on the sex offender posters around the neighborhood; the memoirist is on the verge of being outed for fabricating his experiences; and the chef puts his quest for the perfect quail-egg frittata before his children's well-being. Over the course of a single school year, we are privy to their secrets, passions, and hopes, and learn of their dreams deferred as they confront harsh realities about ambition, wealth, and sex. And we meet their wives and children, who together with these men are discovering the hard truths and welcome surprises that accompany family, marriage, and real estate at midlife.
About the Author
Karl Taro Greenfeld is the author of five previous books, including the much-acclaimed memoir Boy Alone. Greenfeld's fiction has appeared in such renowned publications as The PEN/O Henry Prize Stories. A veteran editor and writer for The Nation, TIME, and Sports Illustrated, Karl has also been a frequent contributor to The New York Times, GQ, Vogue, and Playboy, among others. Born in Kobe, Japan, Karl has lived in Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Tribeca.