The Darlings: A Novel - Hardcover

Alger, Cristina

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670023272 ISBN 13: 9780670023271

Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books, 2012

Synopsis

A sophisticated page-turner about a wealthy New York family embroiled in a financial scandal with cataclysmic consequences.

Now that he's married to Merrill Darling, daughter of billionaire financier Carter Darling, attorney Paul Ross has grown accustomed to New York society and all of its luxuries: a Park Avenue apartment, weekends in the Hamptons, bespoke suits. When Paul loses his job, Carter offers him the chance to head the legal team at his hedge fund. Thrilled with his good fortune in the midst of the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression, Paul accepts the position.

But Paul's luck is about to shift: a tragic event catapults the Darling family into the media spotlight, a regulatory investigation, and a red-hot scandal with enormous implications for everyone involved. Suddenly, Paul must decide where his loyalties lie-will he save himself while betraying his wife and in-laws or protect the family business at all costs?

Cristina Alger's glittering debut novel interweaves the narratives of the Darling family, two eager SEC attorneys, and a team of journalists all racing to uncover-or cover up-the truth. With echoes of a fictional Too Big to Fail and the novels of Dominick Dunne, The Darlings offers an irresistible glimpse into the highest echelons of New York society-a world seldom seen by outsiders-and a fast-paced thriller of epic proportions.

About this title

About the Author

Cristina Alger received her B.A. from Harvard College and her J.D. from NYU Law School. She has worked as an analyst at Goldman, Sachs, & Co. and as an attorney at Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale, & Dorr. She was born and raised in New York City, where she currently resides. This is her first novel.

Review

“Alger, who has worked at Goldman Sachs as well as at a white-shoe law firm, knows her way around 21st-century wealth and power, and she tells a suspenseful, twisty story.”
—Wall Street Journal

“What happens to the Darling family in the course of a weekend is what carries this tale along, but it’s Alger’s description of quintessential New Yorkers, and how they survive, that adds the extra layer. . . . Alger has what it takes, in the best sense of the phrase.”
—USA Today

“Forget Gossip Girl: If you really want a peek into the scandalous lives of New York City's elite upper class, Alger's debut novel—set during the financial downturn of 2008—gets you pretty close. . . . The Darlings moves so fast that it feels more like a thriller than a social drama.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“Penned by a former banker, this is a dishy yet thoughtful portrait of greed gone too far . . . A page-turner.”
—Good Housekeeping

“Two parts Too Big to Fail, one part The Devil Wears Prada, Alger’s debut is taut and compelling.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Probably the most compulsively readable fiction to come out of the Wall Street financial scandal so far. . . . Alger knows the ins and outs of both Wall Street and an upscale NYC lifestyle, nailing all the details . . . Delicious reading.”
—Booklist

“...A financial thriller with a tone that fits somewhere between the novels of Dominick Dunne . . . and Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities.”
—Library Journal

“Cristina Alger is so good, you just know she’s an inside trader—as intimately familiar with the inner workings of Wall Street investment banks as she is with haute Manhattan social life.  She’s also a gifted storyteller.  The Darlings is an utterly compelling novel, as knowing about family as it is about money and social status, and may be the best literary product of the financial crisis to date.”
—Jay McInerney, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Life

“For those who have only gazed up at the palatial residences of Manhattan, this is a glimpse from the penthouse down.”
—Tom Rachman, New York Times bestselling author of The Imperfectionists

“Cristina Alger’s debut novel offers a fresh and modern glimpse into New York’s high society.  I was hooked from page one.”
—Lauren Weisberger, New York Times bestselling author of Last Night at the Chateau Marmont

“A rare, glittering glimpse into Manhattan’s banks, bedrooms, and private clubs, a material and psychological world rendered with extraordinary detail.  A smart, gripping tale . . . complex and mesmerizing.”
—Sarah Houghteling, author of Pictures at an Exhibition

“Cristina Alger has written a racing, vivid, multi-vocal chronicle of the new gilded age, with equal shades of Jay McInerney and Bernie Madoff.  Start reading it and in three hundred pages or so you'll feel like a consummate New York insider, too.”
—Charles Finch, author of A Burial at Sea

About this edition

• Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0670023272
• ISBN 13: 9780670023271
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352