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Andrew Lipstein, the author of Last Resort, challenges our notions of virtue with a brilliant tale of guilt, greed, and how far we’ll go to be good.

Herschel Caine is a soon-to-be master of the universe. His hedge fund, built on the miracle of machine learning, is inches away from systematically extracting obscene profits from the market. His SoHo offices (shoes optional, therapy required) have been fine-tuned to reel in curious investors.

But on the night of May 12, at his elegant Cobble Hill townhouse, he has something else on his mind—the dinner party he and his wife have devised to woo their new A-list neighbors. When the evening fizzles, Herschel indulges in a devilish prank that goes horrifically awry, plunging him into a tailspin of guilt and regret. As Herschel’s tightly constructed world starts to unravel, he clings to the moral clarity he finds in the last place he’d expect: a sudden connection with a neighborhood dog.

A wildly inventive, reality-bending trip, The Vegan holds a mirror up to its reader and poses a question only a hedge fund manager could ask: Is purity a convertible asset? The more Herschel disavows his original sin, and the more it threatens to be revealed, the more it becomes something else entirely—a way into a forgotten world of animals, nature, and life beyond words.

Andrew Lipstein lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Mette, and son, August. He is the author of Last Resort.

Christine Smallwood is the author of the novel The Life of the Mind (Hogarth), which Time magazine named one of the top ten fiction books of 2021. In 2024, Fireflies Press will publish her essay book La Captive.