Something Rotten: A Novel

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR
Named a Top 10 Book of the Year by Our Culture magazine
Named a Publishers Weekly Editors’ Pick
A most anticipated book from New York • Bustle • Lit Hub • The Millions • Foreign Policy • Our Culture • & more

In his provocative, crackling new novel, Andrew Lipstein spins a wicked web through the heart of Copenhagen. You’ll question everyone and everything—even the very nature of truth.

Cecilie is a fed-up New York Times reporter. Her husband, Reuben, is a disgraced former NPR host and grudging stay-at-home dad. Neither can wait to flee New York to spend the summer in Copenhagen, Denmark, Cecilie’s hometown. But their vacation begins to turn inside out as soon as they land: Cecilie’s first love, Jonas, has been diagnosed with a rare, fatal illness. All of Cecilie’s friends are desperate to get him help—except for Mikkel, a high-powered journalist who happens to be the only one Jonas will listen to.

Mikkel’s influence quickly extends to Reuben, who’s not only intoxicated by Mikkel’s charm, but discovers in him a new model of masculinity—one he found hopelessly absent in America. As Mikkel indoctrinates Reuben with ever more depraved stunts, Reuben senses something is seriously amiss. Cecilie, too, begins to question who to trust—even herself. Drawn in by the gravity of the past, she can’t help but stray onto the road not taken.

A twisting, thrilling tale of loyalty and deceit, lovers and fools, Something Rotten proves that sometimes to be kind you have to be cruel beyond belief.