Fine Young People: A Novel

by Anna Bruno

Overview

In this "smart, irreverent secret history" novel, a high-school senior investigates the death of a star hockey player at her elite Jesuit school, where she discovers the rot at the heart of the institution—and the truth about her own past along the way (Stewart O'Nan).

Frankie is a good daughter, a loyal best friend, and a model student, coasting through her final semester at an elite Catholic prep school in a wealthy Pittsburgh enclave. But acceptance to her dream college leaves her unmoored. When a classmate takes his life after posting a cryptic message about Woolf Whiting—a former student hockey player who died in a presumed suicide years earlier—Frankie and her best friend, Shiv, decide to investigate Woolf’s death as part of their journalism class project.

As the community mourns, a muffled conversation between Frankie's mom, who teaches history at the school, and the priest who teaches her philosophy class draws the girls further into unraveling the mysterious life and death of Woolf. Frankie speaks to his sister, now a high-powered lawyer in New York; his former girlfriend, who Woolf's mother is convinced knows more about his death than she has revealed; and his best friend. As she does, she discovers much more than she expected about the history of her supposed elite education—and the truth about her own past. 

With a wry, send-up-the-patriarchy, wise-beyond-her-years narrator and a page-turning plot, Fine Young People is a cold-case mystery with a Hitchcockian twist and a portrait of a young woman searching for meaning in a world that values achievement above all else.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643757001
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	07/29/2025
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Anna Bruno is the author of Fine Young People (Algonquin, 2025) and Ordinary Hazards (Atria, 2020). She teaches at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Previously, Anna managed public relations and marketing for technology and financial services companies in Silicon Valley. She holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, an MBA from Cornell University, and a BA from Stanford University. She lives in Iowa City with her husband, two sons, and blue heeler.

Editorial Reviews

"Anna Bruno’s smart, irreverent secret history of the posh St. Ignatius school is a smorgasbord for Pittsburghers. At once a cozy and a coming-of-age novel, Fine Young People plumbs the true mystery of the Steel City—the chasm between the privileged and everyone else."—Stewart O’Nan, author of Snow Angels and Emily, Alone

"A finely crafted meditation on family, community, class, wealth, insidious power, and the limits of religion."—Booklist

"An engrossing mystery about the perils of belonging, how joy and tragedy can irrevocably shape close-knit communities, and the all-consuming pursuit of the truth, Fine Young People grabbed me in the first few pages and never let me go. The sparkling prose, robust character work, and expert plotting make this novel perfect for readers of Liz Moore and Rebecca Makkai. An absolute gem."—Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters and Saltwater

Bruno uses the framework of a whodunit to drive at deeper questions of faith and family . . . A less assured writer might have failed to make it all coalesce, but Bruno pulls it off, thanks to her keen sense of what’s at stake for her teenage characters and Frankie’s indelible voice. It’s a winner."—Publishers Weekly

"A compelling blend of literary mystery and sharp social commentary, Fine Young People follows Frankie, a student at an elite prep school, as she confronts devastating truths about privilege, power, and the secrets that have shaped her world. Bruno masterfully performs psychological suspense and coming-of-age narrative, creating a propulsive story that examines the true cost of achievement culture. Heart-grabbing, page-turning, and unflinching, Bruno holds us in her grip. An unforgettable novel."—Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman and Godshot

"Fine Young People is an exciting, thoughtful meditation on the importance of success, wealth, and despair, as well as a great addition to anyone’s summer reading list — especially those of us here in Southwestern Pennsylvania.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Anna Bruno has such a keen eye and ear for story. Fine Young People is a taut, gripping, and watchful novel—I didn't want to put it down." —Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had and Same As It Ever Was

"Fine Young People is, unusually but in more than one sense, a mystery novel—not only about the mystery of a young man's death some twenty years in the narrator's past but about the mystery of the overlapping things, the eternal present, the mysteries of faith and grief and friendship. What might be most impressive about it is how much it manages to express without ever laboring for breath. It's eloquent, but casual about it; moving, but casual about it; funny, but casual about it; suffused with the deep unknown, but casual about it."—Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Ghost Variations: One Hundred Stories

"Fine Young People is a Holy Trinity of a novel: the sacred ground of Saint Ignatius ensconced in Pittsburgh’s gritty beauty and industrial history, a captivating mystery that obsessed me at every turn, and complicated, unforgettable characters. Bruno excavates long-buried, multi-layered tragedy, unravels the tangled threads that tie Catholics to their faith, and interrogates the highs and harms of elite sports culture, navigating ambition, religion, family dysfunction, young love, and enduring friendships with the grace and fearlessness of a star athlete who knows all her plays by heart."—Katie Runde, author of The Shore

"Anna Bruno's Fine Young People is a superbly plotted and thoughtfully populated novel about members of a sports-loving community seeking answers to mysteries old and new. In these clever pages you'll also meet people who are healing from loss and betrayal, learning who they are and forging long-lasting friendships. This is a book for everyone."—De'Shawn Charles Winslow, author of Decent People

“Fine Young People is unmistakably a Pittsburgh book, both in geography and in spirit. It’s a story of what we carry forward from our teenage years: the places, the wounds, the unanswered questions, and, perhaps most lastingly, the people we never really leave behind.”—Pittsburgh City Paper

From the Publisher