Won - Ghosts of Manhattan by Douglas Brunt

Title: Ghosts of Manhattan: A Novel
Author: Douglas Brunt
Publisher: Touchstone
Release Date: October 2, 2012
Pages: 288 (Hardcover)
Date Won: July 31, 2012
Received: Giveaway on Goodreads








Summary:

Delve into the world of high-stakes trading with this wry, comic debut about life on Wall Street and one man too hooked on the money to get out--even as his career threatens to ruin his marriage and corrode his soul.It's 2005 and the living is easy. Nick Farmer is thirty-five years old, in peak condition, and thriving as a successful bond trader with the seemingly unstoppable investment bank Bear Stearns. His nightlife has been a swirl of liquor, hookers, and cocaine. He clears seven figures every year and has become fiercely addicted to his annual bonus. But the lifestyle is taking a toll on him--and his marriage.

When a nerdy analyst approaches him with apocalyptic prognostications about the imminent decline of Bear's high-flying mortgage-backed securities trading, Nick is presented with the kind of ethical dilemma he's spent a lifetime avoiding. Throw in a seductive financial journalist who seems to be more interested in Nick's physical assets than in the percolating financial Armageddon, along with the prospect that his own wife may have found a new romantic interest of her own, and you have the recipe for one man's personal and professional implosion.

In this gripping debut novel, Wall Street insider Douglas Brunt offers an in-depth look at the banking crisis and the reach of its personal impact. By turns hilarious and harrowing, "Ghosts of Manhattan" takes you to the seedy underbelly of the finance world and into the rarified lifestyle of a charming but flawed character as he struggles to find the right path in a complicated urban heart of darkness.