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Book Summary and Reviews of Greenwich by Kate Broad

Greenwich by Kate Broad

Greenwich

A Novel

by Kate Broad

  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Published:
  • Jul 2025, 304 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Summer, 1999. Rachel Fiske is almost eighteen when she arrives at her aunt and uncle's mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Her glamorous aunt is struggling to heal from an injury, and Rachel wants to help―and escape her own troubles back home. But her aunt is oddly spacey and her uncle is consumed with business, and Rachel feels lonely and adrift, excluded from the world of adults and their secrets. The only bright spot is Claudia, a recent college graduate, aspiring artist, and the live-in babysitter for Rachel's cousin. As summer deepens, Rachel eagerly hopes their friendship might grow into more.

But when a tragic accident occurs, the family turns on Claudia in a desperate bid to salvage their reputation. Caught between her upbringing and her feelings for Claudia, her desire to do the right thing and to protect her future, Rachel must make a pivotal choice. She's the only one who knows what really happened―and her decision has consequences far beyond what she could have predicted.

A riveting debut novel, Greenwich explores the nature of desire and complicity against the backdrop of immense wealth and privilege, the ways that whiteness and power protect their own, and the uneasy moral ambiguity of redemption.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"[An] insightful debut...Fans of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere ought to take note." —Publisher's Weekly

"This gothic and atmospheric debut novel is absorbingly paced with cutting depictions of dysfunctional family dynamics, exploring societal expectations, how hiding the truth corrupts and corrodes, and the truism that money does not buy happiness." — Booklist

"In Kate Broad's stunning debut, Greenwich, 17-year-old Rachel Fiske arrives at her aunt and uncle's lavish estate, where she's drawn into a world of privilege and secrets. After a tragic accident, Rachel faces an impossible choice, torn between her own desires and family loyalty. Fast-paced, beautifully written, vividly peopled, Greenwich is impossible to put down." ―Adrienne Brodeur, bestselling author of Little Monsters

"No one is innocent in Greenwich, Kate Broad's haunting novel about obsession, loyalty, and responsibility. When a naïve young woman witnesses the unspeakable, she must confront not only the tragedy but also her own complicity. A daring exploration of desire's messy demands, Greenwich illustrates how the choices we make shape who we become. A stunning debut." ―Jillian Medoff, bestselling author of When We Were Bright and Beautiful

This information about Greenwich was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Kate Broad

Kate Broad holds a BA from Wellesley College and a PhD in English from the CUNY Graduate Center. She is a Bronx Council on the Arts award winner for fiction, and her writing appears in The Rumpus, No Tokens, The Brooklyn Review, and elsewhere. Greenwich is her first novel.

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