THE STAGER

The Stager questions matters of friendship, motherhood, loyalty, fidelity, sobriety, sanity and the physicality of light. You will never look at real estate, or rabbits, the same way again.

Eve Brenner is a stager, so she understands the quick, shallow, cosmetic fixes that make a house desirable to a new owner. But when she steps into the faux Tudor home of an investment banker and her tennis star husband, Eve finds herself slipping into a rabbit hole of emotional treachery which she can neither disguise nor escape. ADVERTISED: A 1000-foot master bedroom suite, an expansive cook¹s kitchen with new stainless steel appliances, an indoor gymnasium and a swimming pool set on 1.5 acres of meticulously landscaped acres in a gated golf course community. UNADVERTISED: a twisted, darkly comical back-story. Also, a mysterious stench, a meddling fifth-grader and a fabulously destructive pet rabbit. As soon as she crosses the threshold, Eve realizes that she knows too much about the occupants: beautiful, brilliant Bella was once her best friend when they worked together as journalists at a Washington DC newspaper. Bella¹s life has been a steady upward trajectory. Eve¹s, less so. Her own journalism career fizzled and now she finds herself bitter about the prospect of sanitizing her friend¹s home for sale. That she knows Bella¹s secrets makes the situation potentially combustible. Eve is not the only one struggling with the fallout of Bella¹s success. When he first met his wife, Lars Jorgenson was a handsome Wimbeldon finalist. Once called a Whirling Dervish in Tretorns, Lars is now depressed, obese and slowly unravelling on a cocktail of prescription medications. He has developed an obsession with light and transparency, and is trying to come to terms with the bizarre side effects of mixing too many pills containing the letters x and z. Also, he may or may not be communing with his possibly dead rabbit, Dominique. Ten-year-old Elsa is dealing with multiple losses: her parents are in London preparing for the family¹s overseas move, her rabbit has run away and she will soon be separated from Nabila, her stunning, inscrutable nanny. Lonely and vulnerable, Elsa bonds inappropriately with Eve, causing everyone concern. Susan Coll is the author of the novels Acceptance, karlmarx.com, Rockville Pike, and Beach Week. A film adaptation of Acceptance, starring Joan Cusack, aired on Lifetime Television in 2009. "What a delight to follow Susan Coll on her tour of one family's surreal unraveling. Sly and wise, Coll is a stager extraordinaire, allowing us to peer behind the curtain of suburban success and excess. I loved this novel's wild wit. Now I want to adopt the Jorgenson family's precocious kid and their stoned rabbit."Lisa Zeidner, author of Love Bomb "Sometimes a book just takes you by the hand and swings you deliriously in a new dance, that is THE STAGER, Susan Coll's brilliant comic novel. Peopled by rabbits and woefully wise little girls, by adulterers and other unfortunate adults, this is a world sharp with secrets, grudges, mania, odors and profound sweetness. I loved it." Cathleen Schine