Nobody

In the sweltering summer heat of old New York, Sarah Manvers, a shop girl with nothing, makes a decision that will unravel her life. Seeking refuge from the oppressive city, she breaks into an empty mansion and finds herself drawn into an intoxicating world of wealth she has only ever observed from the outside. What begins as shelter becomes something more dangerous: she puts on the extravagant clothes of a stranger, and in that moment, becomes someone else entirely. But the house is not empty for long. When a burglar appears, Sarah must navigate a web of deception where her survival depends on maintaining a lie that grows more impossible by the hour. Vance writes with sharp, economical prose and a psychologist's understanding of desperation, showing how poverty strips away the luxury of honesty. This is a novel about the aliases we assume when the world insists we are Nobody.