POSH

Set in the private school world of Manhattan's Upper East Side, POSH tracks the lives of a group of teenagers and the adults who hope to control them. It's a world of over-the-top entitlement and tribal customs, a world of surface interactions and deep needs-a world of private schools and privilege.

Griffin is a preparatory school on Manhattan's Upper East Side with the best students-and the richest parent body-the city has to offer. In this eloquent novel set during one class's senior year at the Griffin School, among the queen bees and the wannabes, Michael Avery and Julianne Coopersmith begin a relationship. Their backgrounds are so different-he's beyond privileged and rich, her mother is a writer who drives a cab-but it's the rich boy who ends up being the needy one, with an emotional hole they both believe only Julianne can fill. Their parents are not immune from internal torture either-Michael's mother finds it easier to love her Chinese Crested Hairless than her own child, and Julianne's mother's protective instincts have unexpected consequences.

Fast-paced, gently satirical, yet deeply felt, POSH is a surprisingly poignant and knowing novel distinguished by its spare and elegant prose.