Town & Country, Brian Schaefer

Description

Town & Country: A Novel
by Brian Schaefer (Hardcover – November 4, 2025)

A 2025 Most Anticipated Book – Town & Country • LGBTQReads • Kirkus Reviews
“Rich in sex and social intrigue.” — The New York Times

In his witty, compassionate, and sharply observed debut, Brian Schaefer delivers a panoramic story of love, politics, and belonging in a small upstate town divided by ambition, class, and desire.

The rural community of Griffin has transformed from quiet farmland to a trendy retreat for city weekenders—but now a hotly contested congressional race threatens to expose the fault lines between locals and newcomers. When hometown bar owner Chip Riley faces off against wealthy young challenger Paul Banks, loyalties are tested and lives are upended.

Chip’s wife Diane, a devout real estate agent, grapples with her role in selling Griffin’s soul to the highest bidder—even as she finds herself listing the Banks’ luxurious second home. Their sons are each drawn into the drama from opposing sides: Joe, spiraling after his best friend’s overdose, and Will, newly out and seduced by the glamorous, hedonistic world of Paul’s circle of gay elites.

Meanwhile, Stan Banks, Paul’s much older husband, uses the campaign to fill the void left by the AIDS epidemic, while among their cosmopolitan friends, Eric Larimer and Leon Rogers navigate loneliness, identity, and the uneasy intersections of love and privilege.

Spanning six tumultuous months from Memorial Day to Election Day, Town & Country captures the contradictions of modern America—rural and urban, liberal and conservative, spiritual and secular—with humor, empathy, and aching insight.

For readers of Andrew Sean Greer, Colum McCann, and Fredrik Backman, this is a richly layered exploration of what community really means—and how fragile, and precious, connection can be.