The Ruins

Ruins is a simmering, provocative novel about a couple whose affair with a young Greek woman over the course of a summer in Athens threatens to crack their relationship wide open—from the author of Search History.

At a crossroads in their lives, Emma and Julian arrive in Greece to house-sit for a friend. Emma longs for a meaningful next step beyond work or motherhood, while Julian struggles to accept the collapse of his academic career. Their visions for the future are pulling them apart, and they hope this summer away might help repair their frayed bond.

But their plans take an unexpected turn when they meet Lena, an enigmatic young Greek woman who tempts them to explore their relationship in uncharted and dangerously thrilling ways. As sultry nights give way to stifling days, Emma and Julian find themselves increasingly entangled in Lena’s life. Locked in a shifting struggle for control, the three of them are soon confronted with consequences far greater—and far more explosive—than they could have imagined.

Voyeuristic and thrilling, Ruins channels the drama of a modern Greek tragedy while exposing the tensions between privilege and power, intimacy and desire.