White Elephant, Hardcover/Julie Langsdorf

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Description A turf war between neighbors leads to a small-town crisis in this sharply observant debut novel perfect for fans of Tom Perrotta, Meg Wolitzer, and Celeste Ng. The white elephant looms large over the town of Willard Park: a newly-constructed behemoth of a home, it towers over the quaint houses, including Allison and Ted Millers' tiny hundred year old home. When owner Nick Cox cuts down the Millers' precious red maple--in an effort to make his unsightly property more appealing to buyers--their once serene town becomes a battleground. While tensions between Ted and Nick escalate, other dysfunctions abound: Allison finds herself compulsively drawn to the man who threatens to upend her quietly organized life. A lawyer with a pot habit and a serious mid-life crisis skirts his responsibilities. And in a quest for popularity, a teenage girl gets caught up in a not-so-harmless prank. Newcomers and longtime residents alike clash in conflicting pursuits of the American Dream, with trees mysteriously uprooted, fingers pointed, and lines drawn. White Elephant is a tangled-web tale of a community on the verge and its all-too-human inhabitants, who long to connect but can't seem to find the words. It's a story about opposing sides struggling to find a middle ground--a parable for our times. Jacket The White Elephant looms large over the quaint suburban town of Willard Park: an ornate, newly constructed behemoth of a home, it soars over the neighborhood, dwarfing the houses that surround it. When owner Nick Cox cuts down Allison and Ted Miller's precious red maple--in an effort to make his unsightly property more appealing to buyers--their once-serene town becomes a battleground. While tensions between Ted and Nick escalate, other dysfunctions abound: Allison finds herself compulsively drawn to the man who is threatening to upend her quietly organized life. A lawyer with a pot habit and a serious midlife crisis skirts his responsibilities. And in a quest for popularity, a tee