The Rich People Have Gone Away

Regina Porter has written another marvel of a novel. The Rich People Have Gone Away gives the reader a spiraling cross-section of richly drawn, impeccably observed New Yorkers... A kind of masterpiece of human portraiture that simultaneously renders quintessential depictions of the city, of America, and of the whole world in these first fraught decades of the 21st century

Paul Harding, author of This Other Eden

Wildly intelligent, brilliantly crafted, prismatic, living and breathing - a remarkable feat of sensation and humanity. Regina Porter is a marvel

Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had

Exquisitely drawn characters, scenes that jump off the page, and international locales that'll make you want to pack a bag and go, The Rich People Have Gone Away is a novel that fearlessly defies conventions to deliver a satiating, five-star experience. A keen observer of people and class, Regina Porter has crafted an inventive, hilarious, and wholly unpredictable work full of vibrant prose and genuine tenderness. A seven-course meal that gets better and better

Mateo Askaripour, author of Black Buck

A lush study of relationships, keen on the particulars of vast human catastrophes

Raven Leilani, author of Luster

A glorious jambalaya of word, thought and feeling, Regina Porter's prose positively howls from the page. Just when you thought you didn't need another novel set in New York, you suddenly, desperately do

Gary Shteyngart, author of Our Country Friends

Almost uncomfortably apt in its depiction of human behaviour, impeccably accurate in its exploration of how easily we’re divided and incredibly funny even in the most un-funny moments, The Rich People Have Gone Away makes light and dark of one of the strangest times in human history and pulls you mercilessly along for a highly intelligent and thrilling ride

Ore Agbaje-Williams, author of The Three of Us

Riveting and original. The Rich People Have Gone Away mines the delicate and treacherous terrain in which human relationships and social divisions are rooted

Charmaine Wilkerson, author of Black Cake

Affecting, astounding and wholly humbling... Porter weaves beauty and humor with pathos, in prose that is winding, prescient and profound. She shows us worlds inside of worlds - of queerness, of love and relationships, of who we are and who we’re told to be - crafting a narrative that is both precise and thunderous. The Rich People Have Gone Away moves and transcends. We’re so lucky to have it

Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal

Regina Porter’s wit and astute eye for detail made me want to both underline and inhale every line in the same breath. An immersive examination of the human condition in the face of tragedy and triumph

Zakiya Dalila Harris, author of The Other Black Girl

A delight... Regina Porter is a writer of such wit, warmth and profound intelligence. Her indelible characters leap from her imagination to ours

Margot Livesey, author of The Road to Belhaven

Regina Porter trains her panoramic lens on lockdown New York in The Rich People Have Gone Away, an arresting novel of race, class, food, music, and family as thrilling and dynamic as the city itself

Andrew Ridker, author of Hope

A layer cake of suspense. Regina Porter has created a vibrantly alive portrait of several generations of New Yorkers as they fearlessly stake their anchors in the rippling sea of our era

Kashana Cauley, author of The Survivalists

This novel is as gripping as it is clever

i

A work of great ambition and elan

Observer

An original and complex novel

UK Press Syndication

Porter’s story has the signposts of a mystery and the economically stratified ensemble cast of a social novel. In chapters centered on characters whose lives are disrupted by the couple’s drama and by lockdown, people sift through pasts whose cruelties match those of their pandemic present

The New Yorker

An astonishing accomplishment . . . I would greedily follow this writer anywhere. . . . This is the Covid novel you didn’t know you wanted to catch

The Washington Post

Terrific . . . Inherent in any discussion of privilege must also be a discussion of race, and Porter examines these inseparable ideas with expert nuance in this novel

Chicago Review of Books

Porter’s story casts clear, vivid light on community, privilege, love, loss and the human dilemma—don’t expect to put this one down ’til you’re done

Chronogram

Settles its gaze on matters of race and class, underlined by its breathtaking ending . . . This restless, intentionally unsettling novel establishes Porter as a distinctive, confident literary voice

Kirkus Review