The Endowment

by Alan Thompson

The Politics of Race and MoneyOne of the world’s richest women is dying. She returns to New Hope and engages Harry Monmouth, a boy from her past now in the twilight of life and career, to write her will and enforce its terms. When she dies, and the will is made public, Town and Gown are thrown into turmoil. The College, the sole beneficiary of her vast fortune, is eager for the money but reluctant to submit to her requirements for its use. The “social justice” status quo is threatened.What follows is the sometimes violent degradation of a school founded more than two centuries ago, and the village created to support it. Harry, the last of an old family who cherishes the academic community where he’s spent his entire life, struggles to withstand the chaos while attempting to reconcile the factions vying for money and power. Will New Hope and the College fade into history? Or will they survive to continue the experience begun 230 years earlier?

292 pages, Hardcover

Published January 24, 2023