The Gray New Deal - Paperback

Five decades ago, Barry, Vihaan, Jane, Ellen, Tomás, Doris, and Pearl were college housemates sharing a co-op called West House on a cul-de-sac in Austin, Texas. After graduation, they ventured far and wide to build lives filled with successes and failures, loves and losses. Through it all, they stayed involved in each other's lives, their friendships standing the test of time.

Now Barry, who is by far the most economically successful, renovates the fire-damaged old co-op and invites his friends to live there together once again. Older, wiser, battle scars and all, West House members reunite.

With a foundation of understanding and love that only such a long history can provide, they create a community. Within the household, they all have their own relationships, some built on the past, some budding and others souring, most platonic but others not. What they have most of all is vivid and particular hopes for the future, futures with each other, and futures with new people in their lives.

Still, they can't ignore their complicated pasts, nor can they turn a blind eye to the approaching horizon: What to do when one's health inevitably fails? What happens when meager retirement savings run out? And then, what happens when the pandemic kicks in? As a result, each will have to make difficult decisions as the household support system, however time-tested and robust, is put to the test.