Editorial Content for The Futures
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Reviewer (text)
This debut novel by a young book editor about twenty-somethings, and published by a relatively new imprint, would seem to embody its title, THE FUTURES. Ironically, the book is set back in the New York of 2008, when the country was on the cusp of the financial collapse, and it was anybody’s guess what the future would bring. It tells the story of Julia and Evan, two Yale students who move in together after graduation and whose lives in New York --- seemingly so full of promise --- each fall apart professionally and, away from each other, personally, over the course of that first year.
"Even if the time shifts can be occasionally confusing, the reader remains firmly engaged in the stories, rooting for (or despairing of) first Julia and then Eric, as each gets a turn to rationalize bad behavior."
Both characters are privileged by their educations, but Julia also comes from an affluent, connected family, which is how she gets her first job working for The Fletcher Foundation. She’s miserable there and privy to secrets she has no interest in, even though they will eventually affect her. Evan comes from a small town in Canada and gets his job at Spire, a hot hedge fund, in part because of his nationality, though how that factors in isn’t immediately clear. What is evident early on is that nothing is as it seems at both the family-run Foundation and at Spire, where top management plans to buck the market by making a killing on one canny investment.
Anna Pitoniak has set herself the task of weaving the story of this year from both Julia and Evan’s point of view, so the reader sees something that happens from one narrator’s perspective and then doubles back in time to see how the other narrator’s version differs. Several incidents are referred to long after the occurrence, but as their explanations come belatedly, the reader wonders at times if a reference had been missed.
Even if the time shifts can be occasionally confusing, the reader remains firmly engaged in the stories, rooting for (or despairing of) first Julia and then Eric, as each gets a turn to rationalize bad behavior. That’s because the two stories --- Evan’s all-consuming job and questionable decisions, and Julia’s disillusionment with both her job and her relationship --- reach a denouement that’s satisfyingly cataclysmic and, in some ways, catastrophic for each, followed by a deftly satisfying resolution.
As THE FUTURES unfolds, readers will no doubt have moments of exasperation with both narrators. But in the end, Pitoniak seems to be saying, each had to make his and her own mistakes. That’s the cost of having “your whole future ahead of you.”
Teaser
Julia and Evan fall in love as undergraduates at Yale. After graduation, and on the eve of the great financial meltdown of 2008, they move together to New York City, where Evan lands a job at a hedge fund. But Julia, whose privileged upbringing grants her an easy but wholly unsatisfying job with a nonprofit, feels increasingly shut out of Evan's secretive world. With the market crashing and banks failing, Evan becomes involved in a high-stakes deal at work --- a deal that, despite the assurances of his Machiavellian boss, begins to seem more than slightly suspicious. Meanwhile, Julia reconnects with someone from her past who offers a glimpse of a different kind of life.
Promo
Julia and Evan fall in love as undergraduates at Yale. After graduation, and on the eve of the great financial meltdown of 2008, they move together to New York City, where Evan lands a job at a hedge fund. But Julia, whose privileged upbringing grants her an easy but wholly unsatisfying job with a nonprofit, feels increasingly shut out of Evan's secretive world. With the market crashing and banks failing, Evan becomes involved in a high-stakes deal at work --- a deal that, despite the assurances of his Machiavellian boss, begins to seem more than slightly suspicious. Meanwhile, Julia reconnects with someone from her past who offers a glimpse of a different kind of life.
About the Book
In this dazzling debut novel about love and betrayal, a young couple moves to New York City in search of success --- only to learn that the lives they dream of may come with dangerous strings attached.
Julia and Evan fall in love as undergraduates at Yale. For Evan, a scholarship student from a rural Canadian town, Yale is a whole new world, and Julia --- blond, beautiful and rich --- fits perfectly into the future he's envisioned for himself. After graduation, and on the eve of the great financial meltdown of 2008, they move together to New York City, where Evan lands a job at a hedge fund. But Julia, whose privileged upbringing grants her an easy but wholly unsatisfying job with a nonprofit, feels increasingly shut out of Evan's secretive world.
With the market crashing and banks failing, Evan becomes involved in a high-stakes deal at work --- a deal that, despite the assurances of his Machiavellian boss, begins to seem more than slightly suspicious. Meanwhile, Julia reconnects with someone from her past who offers a glimpse of a different kind of life. As the economy craters, and as Evan and Julia spin into their separate orbits, they each find that they are capable of much more --- good and bad --- than they'd ever imagined.
Rich in suspense and insight, Anna Pitoniak's gripping debut reveals the fragile yet enduring nature of our connections: to one another and to ourselves. THE FUTURES is a glittering story of a couple coming of age, and a searing portrait of what it's like to be young and full of hope in New York City, a place that so often seems determined to break us down --- but ultimately may be the very thing that saves us.
Audiobook available, read by Sarah Mollo-Christensen and Michael Crouch
