On-sale 3.2.27 from Ballantine / Random House (US)
A privileged college student desperate to save his mother from a life behind bars must convince his estranged uncle to hand over his inheritance during a rollicking cross-country road trip—by the beloved author of I Leave It Up to You and Flux.
Connor Carby is a lucky guy. His mother is a Tony-winning producer; his father is an attorney with his name on the door and his face on billboards. But on his twenty-first birthday, Connor arrives at his parents' New York penthouse and discovers his father has vanished after embezzling millions of dollars and his mother has been imprisoned as an accessory to his crimes. Turns out, Connor isn’t so lucky after all.
Connor is desperate. With nowhere to go, he visits the person who least expects him: his chaotic and crotchety uncle, Moses, the owner of Club Nine Tails, a Hell’s Kitchen gay bar with some questionably insensitive décor decisions. Despite being inseparable when Connor was young, they haven’t seen each other in a decade.
With Connor's mother held at Rikers and his father a fugitive, the accounts frozen and the exposed frauds piling up, Moses promises to hand over his portion of "the egg," a large inheritance from years back and Connor's only hope of saving his family. There's just one catch: Connor must first join him on a cross-country trip to Los Angeles, where he’s opening a new club. Then, they can talk about the money. They leave the city in a beat up, maybe-stolen Nissan Cube, embarking on a journey that takes them from motel parking lots to technicolor Dollywood, dodging questions, uncomfortable truths, and increasingly suspicious authorities along the way.
Moses is haunted by the past. Connor is suffocated by a dimming future. Their connection is bone-deep. But it might not survive the circumstances.
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Smart, funny, fast, and a little bit furious, Club Nine Tails is a highly entertaining novel filled with surprising scenes and unforgettable characters. Jinwoo Chong is at the top of his game. — Patrick Ryan, New York Times bestselling author of Buckeye
Sharp and insightful, wild and heartbreaking, you will love this comic and often precarious journey in a Nissan Cube. This book stressed me out so much; I loved every minute of it. I will never forget Connor Carby, the young narrator. This one is a real winner. — Annie Hartnett, bestselling author of The Road to Tender Hearts
Never have I wanted to hug characters more while simultaneously buying them a drink. This book is tenderness personified in all its magical forms. Family can be the most bittersweet life lesson of them all. What better way of finding found family than through your own? You just have to be prepared to dance. — Carolyn Huynh, author of GMA Book Club pick The Fortunes of Jaded Women and Fetal Position
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Cover design by Maria Jesus Contreras // book design by Kevin Quach