THE ACADEMY

"[Elin's] books are escape hatches for serious readers, bridges between mothers and daughters, cat's cra- dles connecting friends. They're beach reads with undertowa confluence of frivolity (picnics, convertibles, flings) and gravity (divorce, deception, loss)." Elisabeth Egan, The New York Times, "The Essential Elin Hilderbrand"

On the first day of fall semester, to everyone's shock, America Today ranks Tiffin Academy as the Number Two boarding school in the country. Was there a typo? The dorms need to be ren- ovated, their sports teams always come in last place, and Tiffin students are known for being more social than academic. On the other hand, the campus is exquisite and their dining hall is run by a former private New York chef. And they have funlots of parties and school dances, and the piano man plays every Monday night. But just as the rarefied air of Tiffin is suffused with self-congratulation at the news, the wheels turn and fall off the bus. One by one, a string of concerning scandals begins to appear on all the screens across Tiffin's campus, thanks to a new app called ZipZap. As if that isn't enough, Head of School Audre Robinson suspects one of her students is up to some serious no-good but he's untouchable because his father is the president of the board and controls Tiffin's purse strings. With a new reputation for Tiffin to uphold amid public scrutiny, and their students' grades, extracurriculars, and social statuses in the air, The Academy is Elin Hilderbrand's fresh, buzzy take on the drama-filled boarding school scene. Elin Hilderbrand is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Program and the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. The Academy is her thirty-first novel, and the first co- written with her daughter, Shelby Cunningham. Hilderbrand co-hosts the podcast "Books, Beach & Beyond." The Netflix adaptation of her novel The Perfect Couple has been seen by more than 60 million viewers. She continues to raise her four young adult children and is a grateful ten-year breast cancer survivor. Shelby Cunningham was born and raised on Nantucket Island. She's a 2024 graduate of St. George's School in Middletown, Rhode Island, and is a student at the University of Miami.