The Party Upstairs

More about the book

Ruby grew up the super's daughter in the basement of an Upper West Side co-op that gets more gentrified with each passing year. Her friendship with Caroline, the daughter of affluent tenants, and the neighborhood's location brought certain advantages. Ruby took out loans to attend a prestigious small liberal arts college but now is no closer to her dream job and is forced to move back in with her parents. Tonight Caroline is throwing a party in her father's glorious penthouse apartment, which Ruby anticipates and dreads in equal measure. After an argument with her father, the façade that masks the building's power structure will have burned away.-- adapted from jacket