Get a first look at When We Were Bright and Beautiful, Jillian Medoff's new Upper East Side drama
If you're still mourning the gap between the third and fourth seasons of Succession, Jillian Medoff (This Could Hurt, Hunger Point) has the book for you. The best-selling author, who has made a name for herself with uncannily insightful takes on the dark side of family institutions, is releasing her fifth novel this summer — and EW has an exclusive first look at the electrifying jacket in the animation above.
"Big, bold, glitzy, and glamorous, this stunning cover captures my entire 350-page novel in one perfect image," Medoff tells EW. "Underneath all that shimmering beauty lies deception, greed, and a distorted sense of entitlement. In When We Were Bright and Beautiful, I draw you into the world of Upper East Side wealth and privilege and then slowly, shockingly upend the story. Brace yourself — all that glitters is not gold."
As Medoff teases, her new book is set amid Manhattan's Upper East Side, in a world of dark, twisty gossip about delightfully dysfunctional rich people. Here's the official synopsis:
Cassie Quinn may only be twenty-three, but she knows a few things. One: money can't buy happiness, but it's certainly better to have it. Two: family matters most. Three: her younger brother Billy is not a rapist.
When Billy, a junior at Princeton, is arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Cassie races home to Manhattan to join forces with her big brother Nate and their parents, Lawrence and Eleanor. The Quinns scramble to hire the best legal minds money can buy, but Billy fits the all-too-familiar sex-offender profile — white, athletic, and privileged — that makes headlines and sways juries.
Meanwhile, Cassie struggles to understand why Billy's ex Diana would go this far, even if the breakup was painful. And she knows how the end of first love can destroy someone: Her own years-long affair with a powerful, charismatic man left her shattered, and she's only recently regained her footing.
As reporters converge outside their Upper East Side landmark building, the Quinns gird themselves for a media-saturated trial, and Cassie vows she'll do whatever it takes to save Billy. But what if that means exposing her own darkest secrets to the world?
When We Were Bright and Beautiful will hit shelves July 5.
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