A Student of History — Nina Revoyr

A contemporary Los Angeles story of uncrossable social lines, allegiance and betrayal, immeasurable power, and the ways the present is continuously shaped by the past.

“Revoyr is gifted in her ability to deal with complex ideas like racism, class conflict, and sexuality without sacrificing the truth of her narrative. Furthermore, like the most adroit novelists, Revoyr specializes in reversal. All of her books are filled with suspense and sudden surprises that take the stories in unexpected directions . . . As much as Nina Revoyr herself is a student of history, she's also one of our best teachers.” -- Los Angeles Review of Books


“Revoyr's latest noir tells a story that's somewhere between Sunset Boulevard and the darker regions of The Great Gatsby . . . Revoyr is a subtle observer of human foibles and social structures, and the result is one of the most insightful, and the most entertaining books of the year.” -- Literary Hub, one of Literary Hub's 50 Favorite Books of 2019

Rick Nagano is a graduate student in the history department at USC, struggling to make rent on his South Los Angeles apartment near the neighborhood where his family once lived. When he lands a job as a research assistant for the elderly Mrs. W -- , the heir to an oil fortune, he sees it at first simply as a source of extra cash. But as he grows closer to the iconoclastic, charming, and feisty Mrs. W -- , he gets drawn into a world of privilege and wealth far different from his racially mixed, blue-collar beginnings.


Putting aside his half-finished dissertation, Rick sets up office in Mrs. W -- 's grand Bel Air mansion and begins to transcribe her journals -- which document an old Los Angeles not described in his history books. He also accompanies Mrs. W -- to venues frequented by the descendants of the land and oil barons who built the city. One evening, at an event, he meets Fiona Morgan -- the elegant scion of an old steel family -- who takes an interest in his studies. Irresistibly drawn to Fiona, he agrees to help her with a project of questionable merit in the hopes he'll win her favor.

A Student of History explores both the beginnings of Los Angeles and the present-day dynamics of race and class. It offers a window into the usually hidden world of high society, and the influence of historic families on current events. Like Great Expectations and The Great Gatsby, it features, in Rick Nagano, a young man of modest means who is navigating a world where he doesn't belong.