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Human Capital
Human Capital
Jul 8, 2025 2:14 AM

Author:Stephen Amidon

Human Capital

It's the spring of 2001. Drew Hagel has spent the last decade watching things slip away - his marriage, his real estate brokerage, and his beloved daughter, Shannon, now a distant and mysterious high school senior. But, as summer approaches, Drew forms an unexpected friendship with Quint Manning, the manager of a secretive hedge fund. Drew sees the friendship leading to vast, frictionless wealth, but Drew doesn't know that Manning has problems of his own: his Midas touch is abandoning him, his restless wife has grown disillusioned, and his hard-drinking son is careening out of control. As the fortunes of three families collide, a terrible accident gives Drew the leverage he needs to stay in the game.

But what are the consequences of speculating with human lives rather than money?

Chosen by The Washington Post as one of the five best works of fiction of 2004, Human Capital is a touching, suspenseful novel about three families that chronicles the American suburban dream with devastating accuracy, by acclaimed author Stephen Amidon.

'Amidon's absorbing novel is distinguished above all by its taut, compelling plot, one hinged by intriguing moral ambiguities' The Sunday Times

'A brilliant examination of the undertow of sadness and desperation that tugs at the American dream' New Statesman

'An unflinching social commentary that has the potential to endure as a clear and literate portrait of its time' Observer

Reviews

'Scenes rivalling the best of D. H. Lawrence'

—— Daily Telegraph

'Truly exciting'

—— Daily Mail

'Splendidly conveys...compassion, excitement, entertainment'

—— Evening Standard

Full of imaginative invention, adventure and compelling descriptive prose, reminiscent of Dorothy Dunnett's writing. The best book I have read in a long time

—— Woman’s Weekly

Manda Scott writes with rich imagination and brilliantly reconstructs history before your eyes

—— Cambridge Journal

Story telling as it should be, edge of the seat, with vivid characterisations but within a thoughtful, spiritual context

—— Eastern Daily Express

Literate chick-lit ... Jayne Buxton is a funny writer who knows that humour is in the detail

—— Boston Globe

This is one that you won't want to miss - a wonderful debut novel

—— Armchair Interviews.com

Intelligent chick-lit ... This laugh-out-loud debut will captivate readers

—— Publishers Weekly

This debut novel is a fresh, thoroughly enjoyable read

—— Sarah Broadhurst

Wonderfully comic and touching

—— Sunday Telegraph

Interweaves a variety of thoroughly imagined life stories and predicaments with quiet, effective skill

—— Mail on Sunday

I have greater admiration for Margaret Forster than for most novelists. A very fine, continuously interesting, and often moving work, all the better because it is so firmly rooted in the ordinary world of everyday experience

—— Scotsman

Cadwalladr also captures the desperation at the heart of most good comedy. She maintains the tragicomic balance to the end and has the confidence to chose the right, realistic ending over the wrong, romantic one

—— The Observer/Review

A hilariously funny and moving chronical of three generations of the Monroe family told through the eyes of Rebecca in the 1970s. It is not just a habit of quoting proverbs and a recipe for sherry trifle that have passed down the maternal line. There's a habit of broken marriages, dubiously fathered children and untimely deaths.

—— Elite

Rebecca Monroe is really stumped when it comes to her family's behaviour. Why, on the day Charles and Camilla got married, did her mum lock herself in the loo and refuse to come out? Was it due to the collapse of her chocolate cake, or because Rebecca's grandmother ended up marrying her first cousin?

Pondering what it is that makes her clan click, Rebecca is determined to discover whether it is genes or fate that affects the different generations.

A fun little romp about the joys of family and the genes we inherit.

—— OK Met Stars

Touching and surprising...A moving account of the personal and social pressures that shape our childhood experiences and resonate throughout out lives

—— The Sunday Times

This exciting first novel by a talented writer is a moving exploration of family life in the twenty-first century...You won't want to put this book down

—— My Weekly

Hilariously funny and moving chronicle of three generations

—— Peterborough Evening News
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