Ways and Means

LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION 2024 FIRST NOVEL PRIZE

A searing debut novel about a striving finance student, the line between ambition and greed, and the disordered politics of our era

"[An] auspicious debut . . . a wildly entertaining drama of ambition and consequence." --Sam Sacks, WALL STREET JOURNAL

"An absolute riot...Thrilling...Lefferts's wry examination of the societal and economic shifts that led to the once unthinkable hits incredibly close to home." --Chris Murphy, VANITY FAIR

"[A] sexy political thriller." --Charles Arrowsmith, WASHINGTON POST

Alistair McCabe comes to 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 come undone: His fantasy banking job has eluded him, he's mired in student debt, and in his desperation he's gone to work for an enigmatic billionaire whose ambitions turn out to be far darker than Alistair could have imagined. By the time Alistair uncovers his employer's secret, his life is in danger and he's forced to go on the run.

Meanwhile, Alistair's paramours, an older couple named Mark and Elijah, must face their own moral and financial dilemmas. Mark, nearing the end of his trust fund, takes a job with his father's mobile-home empire that forces him to confront the unsavory foundations of his family's wealth, while Elijah, a failed painter, throws in his lot with an artist-provocateur whose latest project transforms the country's political chaos into a thing of alluring, amoral beauty.

As the nation hurtles toward a breaking point, Alistair, Mark, and Elijah must band together to save one another and themselves.

Propulsive, exuberant, and profoundly observed, Ways and Means is an indelible, clear-eyed investigation of class and ambition, sex and art, and politics and power in twenty-first century America.

"Ways and Means . . . reaches beyond the swaggering-financier stereotype. Lefferts . . . carefully renders each character's relationship with money . . . [and] reflects how those with the greatest wealth can maneuver with little accountability and what that means for everyone else."-- "BLOOMBERG"
"Ways and Means exists somewhere between realism and wry parody of New York City as it was in the 2010s, with all its randy undergraduates, unhinged financiers, sex parties, and blissfully out-of-touch relatives in the tristate. Lefferts is excellent on real estate, resentment, and reactionary art, but his elegant, observant text is powered not by insider knowledge but by feeling, faith in the work a beautiful sentence can do on you, if you allow."-- "BOMB MAGAZINE"
"Ways and Means is a triumphant debut, a pulsating novel that dives into every crevice of our lives, from high art and higher finance to the depths of student debt and MAGA politics . . . Captivating, fresh, witty, and brilliant, Lefferts is a true, original American voice and this novel is not to be missed."-- "KRISTOPHER JANSMA, author of Why We Came to the City"
"Ways and Means is wise, funny, ribald, and suspenseful. Lefferts moves beautifully through narrative modes, including lavish, obscenely hilarious description, nuanced psychological portraiture, and, when the time is right, propulsive thrillerdom. A love story, a satire, a noir, and a cautionary tale, this novel is a terrific debut."-- "SAM LIPSYTE, author of The Ask and No One Left to Come Looking for You"
"[An] auspicious debut . . . Ways and Means grounds its characters in the unsexy practicalities of wealth and acquisition but spins from them a wildly entertaining drama of ambition and consequence . . . Greed, sex, provocation and revenge are all colorfully depicted . . . [John Lanchester] belongs to a short list of novelists--it includes Adam Haslett, Caleb Crain and Paul Murray, among others--who write convincingly about money. To that small circle we can now add Daniel Lefferts."-- "SAM SACKS, Wall Street Journal"
"Art, politics, late-stage capitalism, throuples: How is it possible for Ways and Means to cover so much ground, and so effortlessly? Lefferts writes with a satirist's eye, but never loses his compassion for his characters, or the harrowing world in which they--and we--find ourselves. This is a remarkable debut by a major new talent."-- "GRANT GINDER, author of Let's Not Do That Again"
"Compelling . . . In [Ways and Means], the personal, often bodily drama of coming-of-age is inextricable from the inhuman forces of capital."-- "KIRKUS REVIEWS"
"Deadly serious in ambition, wildly entertaining in execution, Ways and Means is a remarkably accomplished debut that charts the fault lines of class, politics, art, and desire during a period of American crisis. Every line of this gorgeous novel glows with Lefferts's intelligence and compassion."-- "ANTHONY MARRA, New York Times bestselling author of Mercury Pictures Presents and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena"
"Funny and observant, Ways and Means is a depiction of workers on the brink that anyone can see themselves in."-- "OUR CULTURE"
"Totally absorbing, Ways and Means exhumes and lampoons the repressed erotics at the heart of American capitalism. Lefferts delivers The Great Gatsby for the twenty-first century: irreverent, sexy, and sharp. A major event."-- "JESSI JEZEWSKA STEVENS, author of The Exhibition of Persephone Q and The Visitors"

Daniel Lefferts was born in upstate New York and now lives in Hudson, New York. He holds an MFA from Columbia University and has taught writing at Columbia and Rutgers. Ways and Means is his first novel.

This item has a special returns policy. Please read it carefully.

This product is not eligible for return due to change of mind. Returns only available for damage, fault or other statutory rights.