The Stager

What happens when the person hired to make a luxury apartment feel like home decides to live in it herself? In The Stager, Matthew Aquilone turns that unusual situation into a sharp, character-driven comedy set in New York during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Maya works as a freelance apartment stager in Manhattan. She is capable at her job, but her ambitions lie elsewhere: she wants to become an artist, even though her chosen medium—puppets—has not brought her the recognition she hopes for. Her personal life is equally unsettled, marked by professional embarrassments, a difficult relationship with her sister, romantic frustrations, and the lingering disappointment of a strained friendship. When lockdown approaches, Maya leaves her small Queens apartment and takes refuge in an unoccupied penthouse she was supposed to help prepare for prospective buyers. The luxurious space offers an unexpected opportunity to withdraw from the pressures of ordinary life. But her private retreat does not remain private for long. People from her past and present begin arriving, bringing their own needs and complications into her carefully claimed sanctuary. Through Maya’s first-person perspective, the novel explores creativity, class, loneliness, friendship, ambition, intimacy, and the strange social atmosphere of pandemic-era Manhattan. Its humor comes from the gap between the glamorous setting and the messy realities of the people inhabiting it. The Stager is suitable for readers of contemporary literary fiction, urban satire, and character-led comic novels, particularly those interested in New York stories and fiction examining how unexpected circumstances can reshape personal relationships.