A Field Guide to the North American Family

The debut from the bestselling author of City on Fire, now published in the UK for the first time - a dazzlingly original illustrated novella about the lives of two seemingly ordinary families

From the author of the New York Times bestseller City on Fire
A Granta Best of Young American Novelist 2017
‘A young author of boundless and unflagging talents’ New York Times


We can all agree on this much, Marnie thought: nobody saw the Hungate divorce coming.

From the author of the New York Times bestseller City on Fire
A Granta Best of Young American Novelist 2017
‘A young author of boundless and unflagging talents’ New York Times


We can all agree on this much, Marnie thought: nobody saw the Hungate divorce coming. In the privacy of her own mind, she saw them as the last of a dying breed, the Great American Family.

Two families – the Hungates and the Harrisons – live side by side in Long Island, New York. They lead charmed lives: good jobs in the city, weekends by the pool, cheerleading practice after school and backyard barbecues in the summer. But within these lives lie hundreds of little deceptions.

Told through a mix of photographs and words, this is a dazzlingly inventive depiction of two families falling apart and coming together and the thousand different truths of the American Dream.