A Fortune of Sand: A Novel

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A glittering, gothic page-turner about power, control, and the price women pay when they demand to be seen, rich with Gatsby vibes and twisty family drama, from the beloved author of Salt to the Sea

“Enthralling . . . While history is often molded by those in power, there are always those who can wrest control and write a new story of their own.”—Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling co-author of The Personal Librarian and The First Ladies

Detroit, 1927. A city of smoke and ambition, where glittering wealth conceals a graveyard of secrets.

Marjorie Lennox is the youngest daughter of a powerful Detroit dynasty—a family rich in money and poor in charm. Creative, reckless, and never quite what they wanted, Marjorie has spent her life overlooked by her controlling father and self-absorbed siblings. But when she secretly applies to an elite arts program backed by a mysterious patron, she grabs the chance to finally step out of her family’s shadow.

The building is grand.

The talent is extraordinary.

And something is deeply wrong.

The program is strict in ways that feel sinister. Doors lock at strange hours. Rumors spread about women going missing. And the handsome benefactor behind it all is as magnetic as he is unsettling. As Marjorie gets pulled deeper into his world, she must fight to discover the truth before she loses herself completely.

Set in the fading splendor of 1920s Detroit and inspired by real, long-buried events, A Fortune of Sand is a gripping historical mystery that “recreates the Jazz Age in all its glory and tarnish” (Time).

Ruta Sepetys is an internationally acclaimed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction published in over sixty countries and forty languages. Winner of the Carnegie Medal and honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Ruta is passionate about giving voice to underrepresented history and those who experienced it. She has been invited to present at NATO, European Parliament, the U.S. Capitol, the Library of Congress, and embassies worldwide.  Ruta alternates her time between the hills of Tennessee and the flats of Florida.