The Privileges

Adam and Cynthia Morey are quick-witted, socially at ease, and impatient to get on with things. Together they seem to shield each other from everything outside their marriage. They wed while still young and had two children before Cynthia turned twenty-five.

Adam climbs quickly in private equity and wins the favor of the man who runs his firm. The family lives in a fine house on Manhattan's Upper East Side with their handsome children and a comfortable income. By ordinary measures they have done well, but the Moreys measure success differently. The future they have always pictured, where nearly any wish can be pursued and any goal reached, has not arrived quickly enough for them. Cynthia, home with the children through one nearly identical day after another, starts to drift away from the life she expected. Adam must decide how far he will go to protect his family's happiness and to hold onto his belief that only a life full of open possibility is worth living.

The novel follows the couple across years in which luck, time and their deep devotion to one another shape everything that happens. It considers wealth, family, and what people owe the wider world.