THE NEW PEOPLE by Andrea Uptmor

Welcome to Riverbend, Indiana, a Midwestern college town where we meet newlyweds Emma and Rachel in Andrea Uptmor’s striking debut novel, THE NEW PEOPLE (Little, Brown; July 21, 2026). As the country absorbs the shock of the 2008 housing crash, Chicagoans Emma and Rachel seek a fresh start after a devastating miscarriage. They can hardly believe the deal they find: a charming foreclosure in conservative Riverbend. But as Rachel immerses herself in her new role as a tenure-track professor and bestselling novelist, adjunct Emma struggles in the shadow of her wife’s success. The house, initially a symbol of new beginnings, becomes a refuge for Emma from the town she’s convinced is set against her—until strange occurrences make her question whether she and her wife are truly alone. Unbeknownst to them, Charlotte and Dirk, the former homeowners, are secretly living in the attic above Emma and Rachel’s garage. Financially ruined and anxious about her husband’s declining health, Charlotte is convinced that the only way to hold on to a tenuous tie to their estranged son is if they stay put. Better yet, if she can drive the new people out of their house, then maybe she and Dirk can return to how things were. Her small acts of defiance—pilfering food, flipping breakers in the fuse box, scratching the furniture—soon become sabotage. But when her efforts to drive out the couple go too far, Charlotte’s and Emma’s stories converge in an explosive climax revealing the lengths people will go to reclaim what they’ve lost.