Human Capital

"It's the spring of 2001, and Drew Hagel has spent the last decade watching things slip away--his first marriage, his real estate brokerage, his beloved daughter, Shannon, now a distant and mysterious high school senior. He is in danger of losing his place in the affluent suburb that his father once ruled. And then an unexpected friendship with Quint Manning, the manager of a secretive hedge fund, opens to Drew the prospect of vast, frictionless wealth. What Drew doesn't know is that Manning has problems of his own--his Midas touch is abandoning him; his restless wife, Carrie, is growing disillusioned with all that new money; and his hard-drinking son, Jamie, Shannon's classmate, is careering out of control. As the fortunes of the two families become perilously interwoven, a terrible accident involving Shannon and Jamie gives Drew the leverage he needs to stay in the game. But his decision to speculate with human lives instead of money has unforeseen consequences and brings the novel to a devastating climax. Human Capital is the highest achievement to date of a "powerful and perceptive" novelist (The Washington Post) and a realist for our times."

AMIDON, STEPHEN

Farrar, Straus & Girioux

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM FILM MOVEMENT
It's the spring of 2001. Drew Hagel has spent the last decade watching things slip away―his marriage, his real estate brokerage, and his beloved daughter, Shannon, now a distant and mysterious high school senior. But as summer approaches, Drew forms an unexpected friendship with Quint Manning, the manager of a secretive hedge fund. Drew sees the friendship leading to vast, frictionless wealth, but Drew doesn't know that Manning has problems of his own: his Midas touch is abandoning him, his restless wife has grown disillusioned, and his hard-drinking son is careening out of control. As the fortunes of the Hagels and the Mannings collide, a terrible accident gives Drew the leverage he needs to stay in the game. At once brilliantly observed and masterfully paced, Human Capital "deftly slices open the rich, corrupt heart of suburban America and lets its dark secrets bleed out" (Elle).

Human Capital: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

United States

Picador

There isn't much crime in Stoneleigh, Massachusetts, a college town, a mountain getaway for the quietly rich. So when Edward Inman, owner of Stoneleigh Sentinel security, gets a late-night alarm from the home of one of his wealthiest clients, Doyle Cutler, he does a routine check and thinks nothing more of it―until a local student claims that she was sexually assaulted that night at Cutler's house.Edward soon finds himself drawn into the girl's story, and his investigation leads him to his old girlfriend, whose teenage son may know the truth about what happened that night. Security is a timely, wry, and riveting story of adults and children, secret lives and civic culture, suspicion and sexual hysteria.

Security: A Novel

It's the spring of 2001, and Drew Hagel has spent the last decade watching things slip away--his first marriage, his real estate brokerage, his beloved daughter, Shannon, now a distant and mysterious high school senior. He is in danger of losing his place in the affluent suburb that his father once ruled. And then an unexpected friendship with Quint Manning, the manager of a secretive hedge fund, opens to Drew the prospect of vast, frictionless wealth. What Drew doesn't know is that Manning has problems of his own--his Midas touch is abandoning him; his restless wife, Carrie, is growing disillusioned with all that new money; and his hard-drinking son, Jamie, Shannon's classmate, is careering out of control. As the fortunes of the two families become perilously interwoven, a terrible accident involving Shannon and Jamie gives Drew the leverage he needs to stay in the game. But his decision to speculate with human lives instead of money has unforeseen consequences and brings the novel to a devastating climax. Human Capital is the highest achievement to date of a "powerful and perceptive" novelist (The Washington Post) and a realist for our times.

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

There isn't much crime in Stoneleigh, Massachusetts. It’s a college town, a mountain getaway for the quietly rich, where the average burglar alarm is set off by foraging wildlife. So when Edward Inman, the owner of Stoneleigh Sentinel, gets a latenight false alarm from the home of Doyle Cutler, one of his wealthiest clients, Edward thinks nothing of it—not until a local student, Mary Steckl, claims that she was sexually assaulted at Cutler’s house. Edward soon finds himself drawn to Mary’s story, even though the rest of the town doubts her, including his wife, a rising politician who has made security the platform of her mayoral campaign. While homework from a creative writing class is leaked as evidence of a dark secret between Mary and her father, Edward’s investigations lead him to his old girlfriend, Kathryn Williams, whose teenage son may hold the key to the truth about that night. From the author of Human Capital, Security is a timely, wry, and riveting story of adults and children, secret lives and civic culture, suspicion and sexual hysteria. It confirms Stephen Amidon as a master of the art and one of the foremost chroniclers of American life today.

An immensely powerful social novel about community and race in America--large in its scale and ambition, shattering in its impact--that transforms suburbia into the setting for great fiction. Newton, Maryland, 1973. The Vietnam War is winding down, the Senate Watergate hearings are heating up. And in this pristine and meticulously planned community, an innocent misunderstanding is about to set the two men who control its quiet streets on a fateful collision course. Austin Swope is the white lawyer who made the dream of this new city a reality through years of cunning lawyering and smooth real-estate deals. Earl Wooten is the up-by-his-bootstraps black master builder who with his bulldozers and backhoes raised Newton from its foundations--and in the process, he believes, escaped a lifetime of racism and privation. They are best friends, as are their two teenaged sons, Teddy and Joel, each the repository of their respective fathers' deepest hopes. The shining future beckons. But cracks are appearing. A fight at the Teen Center over music escalates into a near race riot. Bad publicity ensues, which Austin knows is detrimental to business. Earl has problems as well: construction delays, exploding gaslights, and a son in love with a beautiful blond, Susan Truax, daughter of a Vietnam veteran who is finding peace a greater challenge than war. In a city born of a vision of racial harmony, the seeds have been sown for a series of mixed signals, miscalculations, and entirely human failings to culminate in an inexorable slide toward destruction. Perfect in every period detail, The New City is an important novel that combines compassion for its flawed characters with a brilliant, gripping plot that gathers momentum on every page. An American tragedy on a grand scale, a cathartic occasion of pity and terror, and a vision of the country, in its best and worst aspects, at a pivotal point in its social history, The New City announces Stephen Amidon's arrival as a major novelist.

The New City: A Novel

DOUBLEDAY

A thought-prooking thriller and a literate page-turner, Stephen Amidon's The New City takes aim at the suburban American dream and captures the real nightmare behind it. It is 1973, the Vietnam War is winding down and the Senate Watergate hearings are heating up. But Newton, Maryland, is a model community, an enclave of harmony and prosperity. Through years of cunning legal maneuvering and smooth real-estate deals, the white lawyer Austin Swope has made the dream of this new city a reality. His best friend is Earl Wooten, the black master builder who raised Newton from its foundations. Their teenaged sons, Teddy and Joel, each the repository of his father's deepest hopes for the future, are inseparable buddies. But cracks begin to appear in this pristiine and meticulously planned community, and an innocent misunderstanding is about to set the two men who control its quiet streets on a fateful collision course.

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

A thought-prooking thriller and a literate page-turner, Stephen Amidon's The New City takes aim at the suburban American dream and captures the real nightmare behind it. It is 1973, the Vietnam War is winding down and the Senate Watergate hearings are heating up. But Newton, Maryland, is a model community, an enclave of harmony and prosperity. Through years of cunning legal maneuvering and smooth real-estate deals, the white lawyer Austin Swope has made the dream of this new city a reality. His best friend is Earl Wooten, the black master builder who raised Newton from its foundations. Their teenaged sons, Teddy and Joel, each the repository of his father's deepest hopes for the future, are inseparable buddies. But cracks begin to appear in this pristiine and meticulously planned community, and an innocent misunderstanding is about to set the two men who control its quiet streets on a fateful collision course.

The New City

Contemporary

New York: Doubleday

1st Black Swan 2001 trade edition paperback, fine In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

The Primitive

Victor Gollancz, Ltd.

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Books by AMIDON, STEPHEN

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by AMIDON, STEPHEN. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Human Capital

Human Capital: A Novel

Security: A Novel

Human Capital: A Novel

Security: A Novel

The New City: A Novel

The New City: A Novel

The New City

The New City

The Primitive