Six Figures — Fred G. Leebron

A disturbing novel of domestic unease, part thriller and part psychological drama, from a young American writer of exceptional talent.

Warner Lutz isn't sure how he got where he is, but he's not especially happy to be there: mid-thirties, married, two kids, dead-end job in fund-raising, small house, old Honda. He and his wife, Megan, have just moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, a town that is booming with new money-but the Lutzes aren't part of the new affluence. Megan's job might be in jeopardy, and one of their children seems to be slipping badly in school. Things go from bad to worse when Megan is brutally attacked, and Warner emerges as the prime suspect.

In the way that the film American Beauty touched a nerve in America, and pierced with the realism and emotional honesty of Raymond Carver's stories, Fred Leebron's latest novel is a powerful and deeply disturbing story of a family caught in complex, ambiguous turmoil.