For fans of Don DeLillo and Joseph O'Neill, an enthralling debut about the one percent, what they'll do to stay on top, and the callous gaze they turn on those below them.
Stephen Harker is a disillusioned associate at Kilgore, litigating for such multinational companies as insurance giant WorldScore, underwriter of a contractor that supplies private soldiers to the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Harker's charismatic, womanizing boss, assigns him the case of one of WorldScore's clients: Major John Thomas, a veteran, former contract soldier, and divorced father seeking workers' compensation for PTSD and injuries suffered while employed by FreedomQuest in the Afghan war zone. Fearing that honoring his claims will open the floodgates of payouts to returning soldiers, WorldScore wants Thomas blocked at all costs.
When Harker must turn the firm's full legal power on the wounded veteran and tear his case apart, it sparks an existential downward spiral and a desperate relationship with his boss's bohemian ex-wife until he must choose whether to make one last act of redemption.
All the Beautiful People We Once Knew is a riveting insider's indictment of the world of the corporate elite and the savage determination with which they fight to maintain control. In a society where the very institutions that should support our returning veterans instead view them with suspicion, this stunning debut is a grim reflection on the ever-growing rift between the classes.
