In a university town in the American Midwest a circle of lovers and friends navigate tangled webs of connection as they try to work out what they want, and who they are

As they test their own desires in a series of relationships they are confronted by volatile figures in town, from unruly, vulnerable young poets to a local landlord harbouring a lifetime of resentment.

Seamus, Fyodor, Ivan, Noah and Fatima ask themselves and each other: what is the right thing to stake a life on? Work, love, money, dance, poetry? Is love possible without harm? And what does true connection look like in an age of precarity?

'The Late Americans is a full expression of his singular talent' Emma Cline, author of The Girls

'Taylor is a sharp chronicler of the body' Raven Leilani, author of Luster

'Elegant... [Taylor] has a Chekhovian generosity' Claire Messud, author of The Emperor's Children