Good Guys

Bala delves into the messy workings of international philanthropy in her thoughtful follow-up to The Boat People. When Children of the World, a struggling nonprofit founded by an aging rock star, hires seasoned PR professional Clare Talbot to revive its fortunes, she invites Hollywood actor Dallas Hayden to visit their clinic in the Latin American country of Santa Rosa. Dallas’s immediate bond with Maria, an ill child from a near-destitute family, prompts her to aggressively pursue adoption—never mind Maria’s loving family—and pledge a hefty donation to Children of the World. Moral queasiness aside, Clare accepts the apparent victory. Then the story gets picked up by tenacious freelance journalist Emmanuelle Clemmons, who digs into both the details of Maria’s adoption and the operations of Children of the World, unearthing a string of unsavory practices that force Clare to reckon with her dreams of “doing good.” Bala’s blackly comic tale rotates through a kaleidoscopic cast of narrators, each of whom believes themselves to be the hero in their own story. With a satirical eye that never tips into cynicism, Bala delivers a quietly profound, thriller-adjacent dissection of global inequality that bruises even as it entertains. Agent: Martha Webb, CookeMcDermid. (Jan.)