The Locusts Have No King - Dawn Powell

Frederick Olliver and Lyle Gaynor are an unlikely pair. He is an introverted, bookish medievalist who still lives with a flatmate, while she is a glamorous, wildly successful playwright who refuses to leave her marriage because it secures her social standing. Frederick does not belong in Lyle's high-powered world, yet fate has other plans. When Frederick's long-gestating opus is seized by his publisher in a last-ditch attempt to save their struggling business, it unexpectedly becomes a massive success. Suddenly, Frederick finds himself in the spotlight, attracting admirers-including the fiercely determined Dodo, who pursues him with an agenda of her own. As Lyle's Broadway career falters and Frederick becomes the literary darling of the very scene he once dismissed, the two must navigate a reversal of fortunes in a society obsessed with wealth and status, where love often comes at a price.