Ways and Means
A Novel
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- USD 9.99
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- USD 9.99
Descripción editorial
LONG-LISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE
"An absolute riot... Lefferts's wry examination of the societal and economic shifts that led to the once unthinkable hits incredibly close to home." —Vanity Fair
Alistair McCabe arrives in New York with a plan. Young, handsome, intelligent, and gay, he hopes to escape his Rust Belt poverty and give his mother a better life by pursuing a career in high finance.
But by the spring of 2016, Alistair’s plan has completely come undone:
• Mired in student debt, his dream investment banking career has eluded him.
• Desperate for a way out, he enters the orbit of an enigmatic billionaire whose true ambitions turn out to be far darker than Alistair could have ever imagined.
A searing debut about a striving finance student, the fine line between ambition and greed, and the disordered politics of our era, Ways and Means is a propulsive literary thriller about money, power, and the cost of American success.
Praise for Ways and Means
“An auspicious debut . . . a wildly entertaining drama of ambition and consequence.” —Wall Street Journal
“A sexy political thriller.” —Washington Post
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lefferts, a PW contributing editor, debuts with the ambitious and exciting story of a business student, the 30-something gay couple he's been sleeping with, and the economic forces at work during the rise of Trump in 2016. Alistair, 22, is in his final semester at NYU when he learns that Herve, the billionaire he's been working for, wants him dead. (The details of Herve's shady dealings are gradually revealed—at the outset, readers only know the arrangement is earning Alistair $10,000 per month.) Mark and Elijah, the couple Alistair's been seeing for the past year, are on the outs when he announces he's skipping town. Mark, who has been supporting Elijah for several years on his dwindling trust fund, is heartbroken over Alistair's departure. He moves home to New Jersey, where his father, the owner of a chain of trailer parks, plans to cash out to Wall Street. Meanwhile, Elijah, who can't afford an apartment, crashes with his friend Jay, an edgelord artist whose videos of underwear and MAGA hat–clad gay models are funded by Herve's brother. Alistair, a talented and humble striver who evokes John Grisham's Mitch McDeere except for a self-sabotaging refusal to glad hand, hides out from Herve with his mother in Binghamton, N.Y. Lefferts's nimble sense of scale enables him to convincingly depict the blue-chip firms who rejected Alistair and exploit the housing market, as well as to zoom in for poignant and subtle psychological realism. The results are electrifying.
