Novelist’s new book set in Fayetteville

“Come and Get It,” the second novel by Kiley Reid, New York Times bestselling author of “Such a Fun Age,” will be released today with a story set in Fayetteville at the University of Arkansas campus in fictional Belgrade dormitory.

Reid is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. Her debut novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Reid will discuss her new book at the Fayetteville Public Library on Feb. 7.

The storyline of “Come and Get It” follows a few characters closely including Millie Cousins, a Black student resident assistant, as she attempts to simultaneously save money for her first house and complete her senior undergraduate year. Agatha Paul is a visiting professor/author whose offer to pay the RA for contributions to her research seems like easy money. The intrigue of the story revolves around their interactions with each other and other students, a couple of whom live on Millie’s floor.

Attitudes around money and materialism play strong roles in the book, as well as some racial dynamics.

Reid lived in Fayetteville for one year before entering her master of fine arts program. She thought a place that was geographically but not culturally southern could be an interesting setting for a novel based in the South, according to a press release.

While crafting the novel, Reid imagined it would have the title “Sooie” because of the call of the Razorbacks, but the meaning didn’t translate easily to those who hadn’t lived in Northwest Arkansas. When her agent asked what “sooie” meant and whether it could be boiled down to “come and get it,” Reid knew they had a title.

“This is a novel about three people coming to Fayetteville to get something,” Reid said, according to a press release. “But it’s also an exploration of what a capitalist society promises and how that promise flounders.”

Locals will recognize many of the settings the characters find themselves in, including Dickson Street, Puritan Coffee, Ozark Natural Foods, Nightbird Books, Maxine’s Taproom, Wilson Park, Lake Fayetteville and more.

In a press release, Reid said a goal of her fiction is to create entertaining stories where themes, like that of whether art can be produced ethically under late-stage capitalism, show up on an intimate and emotional level.