A Day at the Beach — Helen Schulman

The marriage of Gerhard and Suzannah Falktopf is already in trouble when tragedy strikes on the morning of September 11, 2001. As the quintessentially hip, downtown, art couple--he a famous choreographer; she his muse, principal dancer, and now mother to their four-year-old son--the strains in their marriage have been kept at bay by the glamorous velocity of their lives. Though they themselves escape harm when the planes crash into the towers, husband and wife are suddenly cast into a unpredictable psychological space that allows their buried selves, and their sharp differences, to rise to the surface. Packing up the car, with their gorgeous young nanny in tow, they head for the safety of the Hamptons. But despite their seemingly soft landing in this cocoon of privilege, unleashed demons continue to push them to their psychic limits--so much so that by the next morning they will hardly recognize each other.