“A complex, beautiful coming-of-age novel…a love story unlike any I’ve ever read.” –Ali Hazelwood
“A soulful book about the politics of labor and submission.” –Raven Leilani
When Lili Marwan–seeking to escape the unrelenting pressures of her master’s thesis, recent rejection from her foster family, and unresolved grief from the death of her parents–has an intense one-night stand with Aleksandr Petrov, her restless mind finally goes calm.
At twenty-two, Lili is already opinionated beyond her years: whether it’s astrology, democratic socialism, veganism, or the ravages of late-stage capitalism run rampant. But when a tall, dark stranger buys her a drink in a FiDi bar, she meets her match. Aleksandr is formidable, fiercely intelligent, and infuriatingly disarming. He’s also two decades older than her, a Capricorn with a birth chart full of red flags, a neoliberal capitalist, and a strong believer in the power of free markets, having escaped the Soviet Union in its dying days. He’s the opposite of Lili in nearly every way. He challenges her at every turn. And she can’t stay away. Over the course of a heady New York City summer, Lili and Aleksandr reach across the divide of their differences and the decades of their lives, discovering startlingly shared experiences. Their casual arrangement–rough sex, hours where Lili does not need to make any decisions–gives way fast to an unexpected intimacy, by turns breathtaking, then devastating. As Lili struggles to understand herself and the complicated threads of her ambition, pain, and desire, she will have to decide: is she willing to risk great loss again, for the hope of profit that is finally within reach?Author: Anna Maria Volkova
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Published: 06/02/2026
Pages: 432
ISBN: 9780063437722
Language: English
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