Susan Coll, director of events and programs at Politics & Prose, is an accomplished novelist whose fifth book, The Stager (Sarah Crichton, $26), is set, like some of her earlier works, in a tony Washington area zip code (local readers may feel sure that The Stager’s characters closely resemble their own neighbors). But even if you live outside of Washington, you will appreciate (and be entertained by) Coll’s searing wit as she deftly deconstructs the excesses of upscale life in suburbia. The story revolves around a couple selling their house and hiring a stager to make the abode presentable to potential buyers, a topic that neatly lends itself to satire in Coll’s capable hands. One fun surprise: the best character in the book is not a person, but a rabbit. And a philosopher rabbit at that!
