Last Resort

Named a Best Book of 2022 by the New Yorker
Named a Top 10 Book of the Year by Slate
Named a Best Book of the Year by Vulture
A New York Times Editors' Choice
Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction

'Talent is rare, which is why I let out a big yippee reading Andrew Lipstein's Last Resort... Excellent'
THE TIMES

'You won't read a more brilliantly executed literary romp this year'
GUARDIAN

'A funny, fast-paced literary satire'
DAILY TELEGRAPH

'Incredibly entertaining'
NEW YORK TIMES, Editor's Choice

'Wicked fun... A deliciously absurd comedy'
WASHINGTON POST

'If Less by Andrew Sean Greer left a hole in your life, good news: Last Resort will fill it'
MEG MASON

'Caleb Horowitz is exactly the kind of character I love to hate'
CLAIRE FULLER

'A rare accomplishment'
RUMAAN ALAM

'Wickedly funny: I loved it'
PATRICK GALE

'Superbly written, darkly funny and gripping from the first page. I absolutely loved it'
EMMA STONEX

Caleb Horowitz is twenty-seven, and his wildest dreams are about to come true. His manuscript has caught the attention of the literary agent, who offers him fame, fortune and a taste of the literary life. He can't wait for his book to be shopped around to every editor in New York, except one: Avi Dietsch, a college rival and the novel's 'inspiration.'
When Avi gets his hands on the manuscript, he sees nothing but theft - and opportunity. And so Caleb is forced to make a Faustian bargain, one that tests his theories of success, ambition and the limits of art.

About the author

ANDREW LIPSTEIN is a writer based in Brooklyn. He works on the product design team at Kabbage, a fintech startup, and was previously at Meural, an art tech startup. He founded and runs the digital bookstore 0s&1s. He graduated from Haverford College with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. LAST RESORT is his debut novel.

Summary

Named a Best Book of 2022 by the New Yorker
Named a Top 10 Book of the Year by Slate
Named a Best Book of the Year by Vulture
A New York Times Editors' Choice
Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction

'Talent is rare, which is why I let out a big yippee reading Andrew Lipstein's Last Resort... Excellent'
THE TIMES

'You won't read a more brilliantly executed literary romp this year'
GUARDIAN

'A funny, fast-paced literary satire'
DAILY TELEGRAPH

'Incredibly entertaining'
NEW YORK TIMES, Editor's Choice

'Wicked fun... A deliciously absurd comedy'
WASHINGTON POST

'If Less by Andrew Sean Greer left a hole in your life, good news: Last Resort will fill it'
MEG MASON

'Caleb Horowitz is exactly the kind of character I love to hate'
CLAIRE FULLER

'A rare accomplishment'
RUMAAN ALAM

'Wickedly funny: I loved it'
PATRICK GALE

'Superbly written, darkly funny and gripping from the first page. I absolutely loved it'
EMMA STONEX

Caleb Horowitz is twenty-seven, and his wildest dreams are about to come true. His manuscript has caught the attention of the literary agent, who offers him fame, fortune and a taste of the literary life. He can't wait for his book to be shopped around to every editor in New York, except one: Avi Dietsch, a college rival and the novel's 'inspiration.'
When Avi gets his hands on the manuscript, he sees nothing but theft - and opportunity. And so Caleb is forced to make a Faustian bargain, one that tests his theories of success, ambition and the limits of art.

Foreword

When a bestseller-to-be cuts too close to reality, its author must make a Faustian bargain...
In his blazing debut novel Last Resort, Andrew Lipstein blurs the lines of fact and fiction with a thrilling story of fame, fortune, and impossible choices.

Additional text

A darkly comical thriller about editors and agents, friends and acquaintances, lovers and strangers, written in an excitingly careful, attentive, and original prose style.

Report

Cowardly, avaricious, annoying, territorial, deceitful, opportunistic: there aren't enough shady adjectives in the dictionary to describe the narrator of Andrew Lipstein's Last Resort. What fun! Last Resort is about a novelist who has stolen the plot of his best-selling book from a story relayed to him by an acquaintance. Now, if you read last year's The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, you'll notice that this novel has a similar, uh, plot as that one... They are both thrillers about, of all things, intellectual property. Korelitz's book was tighter and darker. Lipstein's is funnier. Both are incredibly entertaining... If Lipstein had written a less cunning book, he might have contrasted Caleb with a character who represented artistic purity, whatever that is. But everyone here sits somewhere on the grifter spectrum, including the real people (Avi, doomed woman, repressed married couple) upon whom Caleb's characters are based... In addition to a blithe streak, Caleb has a cruel streak, a petty streak and an intemperate streak, and Lipstein milks the comedy of these traits almost as well as Kingsley Amis did in Lucky Jim. New York Times, Editor's Choice

Product details

• Authors: Andrew Lipstein
• Publisher: Weidenfeld and Nicolson
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2020
• EAN: 9781474620116
• ISBN: 978-1-4746-2011-6
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 232 mm x 26 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION / Holidays, FICTION / Biographical, FICTION / Friendship, FICTION / City Life, FICTION / Psychological, Thriller / suspense fiction, Thriller / suspense, Humorous fiction, Publishing industry and journalism, Publishing industry & book trade