White Elephant

<p><strong>A turf war between neighbors leads to a small-town crisis in this sharply observed debut novel perfect for fans of Tom Perrotta Meg Wolitzer and Celeste Ng.</strong></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p><em>White Elephan</em>t 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.</p>