Ways and Means

Description

LONG-LISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE

“An absolute riot… Lefferts’s wry examination of the societal and economic shifts that led to the once unthinkable hits incredibly close to home.” —Vanity Fair

Alistair McCabe arrives in 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 completely come undone:

• Mired in student debt, his dream investment banking career has eluded him.
• Desperate for a way out, he enters the orbit of an enigmatic billionaire whose true ambitions turn out to be far darker than Alistair could have ever imagined.

A searing debut about a striving finance student, the fine line between ambition and greed, and the disordered politics of our era, Ways and Means is a propulsive literary thriller about money, power, and the cost of American success.

Praise for Ways and Means

“An auspicious debut . . . a wildly entertaining drama of ambition and consequence.” —Wall Street Journal

“A sexy political thriller.” —Washington Post
Binding Type: Paperback
Author: Daniel Lefferts
Published: 08/05/2025
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
ISBN: 9781419768200
Pages: 400
Weight: 0.77lbs
Size: 1.06″ H x 8.18″ L x 5.55″ W

About the Author

Daniel Lefferts is the author of Ways and Means, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Raised in upstate New York, he holds an MFA from Columbia University and has taught writing at Columbia and Rutgers. His work has appeared in The Paris Review, The Yale Review, The New York Review of Books, GQ, and The Baffler. He lives in the Hudson Valley.