The Pessimists

Bethany Ball

Oct 2021 · Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Carlotta Brentan

About this audiobook

Welcome to small-town Connecticut, a place whose inhabitants seem to have it all-the status, the homes, the money, and the ennui. There's Tripp and Virginia, beloved hosts whom the community idolizes, whose basement hides among other things a secret stash of guns and a drastic plan to survive the end times. There's Gunter and Rachel, recent transplants who left New York City to raise their children, only to feel both imprisoned by the banality of suburbia. And Richard and Margot, community veterans whose extramarital affairs and battles with mental health are disguised by their enviably polished veneers and perfect children. At the center of it all is the Petra School, the most coveted of all the private schools in the state, a supposed utopia of mindfulness and creativity, with a history as murky and suspect as our characters' inner worlds. With deep wit and delicious incisiveness, in The Pessimists, Bethany Ball peels back the veneer of upper-class white suburbia to expose the destructive consequences of unchecked privilege and moral apathy in a world that is rapidly evolving without them. This is a superbly drawn portrait of a community, and its couples, torn apart by unmet desires, duplicity, hypocrisy, and dangerous levels of discontent.

About the author

Bethany Ball was born in Detroit and has lived in Santa Fe, New Jersey, Miami, and Israel. She now lives in New York with her family. She is the author of What to Do About the Solomons.

Carlotta Brentan is a New York-based actor, producer, and audiobook narrator. A multiple AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator specializing in YA with an edge, thrillers, and literary fiction, Carlotta has voiced New York Times and Audible bestselling audiobooks, as well as Reese Witherspoon Book Club picks.