The debut novel of New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Franzen, the author of Crossroads, The Twenty-Seventh City is “a startling, scathing first novel about American ambition, power, politics, money, corruption and apathy” (People).

St. Louis, Missouri, is a quietly dying river city until it hires a new police chief: a charismatic young woman from Bombay, India, named S. Jammu. No sooner has Jammu been installed, though, than the city’s leading citizens become embroiled in an all-pervasive political conspiracy. A classic of contemporary fiction, The Twenty-Seventh City shows us an ordinary metropolis turned inside out, the American Dream unraveling into terror and dark comedy.