Stephen Amidon's Human Capital is a gripping novel of new money, old jealousies, and the secret lives of parents and children in the suburbs. Now a major motion picture!
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).
"In Stephen Amidon's brilliant Human Capital a specter is haunting America--not the specter of Socialism that Marx once envisioned, but the 21st Century specter of Failure. Amidon combines the intellectual acuity of a social theorist, the steady powers of observation of a first rate reporter, and the sympathy and grace of a natural writer. From its very beginning, Human Capital seizes us and plung
Scott Spencer, author of Endless Love
"A gripping, troubling, and incisive portrait of the way we live now, Human Capital has the ambitious sweep and narrative power of a 19th century novel. Stephen Amidon is the rare writer who can illuminate the secrets of money and love with equal authority."
Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and Joe College
"Stephen Amidon's beautiful and terrifying Human Capital is an ever-tightening knot of money, love, sex, and lies. This roaring read cuts to the heart of how we live now in America, risking all for the almighty dollar. His best book yet."
