A razor-sharp novel that skewers the life of the uber-rich in the vein of The White Lotus, with shades of The Talented Mr Ripley and The Graduate.

Conor is a recent graduate from a law school no one has heard of. Without any job prospects and needing to support his chronically ill mother, he takes a summer job teaching tennis at the affluent gated community of Cutters Neck, Massachusetts. One of his first students is Catherine, a magnetic divorcée keen to hire him for more than advice on her serve. What begins as a transactional arrangement soon develops into an intoxicating sexual relationship.

Things become even more complicated when Conor encounters Emily, with whom he has his first taste of real intimacy. Against his better judgment, he soon finds himself living a double life that inevitably leads to disaster.

Conor knows how hard it is to win against those with money and power. In his fight for survival, he has to put emotion aside and play with only his wits – after all, in tennis, love means nothing.

One of the most critically acclaimed books of the year, Whiting Award-winner Teddy Wayne's second novel is "more than a scabrous sendup of American celebrity culture; it's also a poignant portrait of one young artist's coming of age" (Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times")--and an enduring yet timely portrait of the American dream gone awry.
In his rave on the cover of "The New York Times Book Review," Jess Walter praised Wayne's writing for its "feats of unlikely virtuosity" and the boy at its center as "a being of true longing and depth, and...a devastating weapon of cultural criticism...You'd have to be made of triple platinum not to ache for Jonny Valentine."
With "assured prose and captivating storytelling" (Oprah.com's Book of the Week), "The Love Song of Jonny Valentine" also showcases "one of the most complicated portrayals of the mother-son relationship since "Room"" ("BookPage"). Touring the country in a desperate attempt to save a career he's not sure he even wants, Jonny is both driven by his mother's ambition and haunted by his father's absence, constantly searching for a familiar face among the crowds. Utterly convincing, whip-smart, yet endearingly vulnerable, with an "unforgettable" voice ("Publishers Weekly," starred review), the eleven-year-old pop megastar sounds "like Holden Caulfield Jr. adrift in "Access Hollywood" hell" ("Rolling Stone").
Called "a showstopper" ("The Boston Globe"), "hugely entertaining" ("The Washington Post"), "heartbreakingly convincing" ("People"), "buoyant, smart, searing" ("Entertainment Weekly"), and "touching and unexpectedly suspenseful" ("The Wall Street Journal"), this extraordinary novel has been widely embraced as a literary masterpiece and the rare "satire with a heart" ("Library Journal," starred review).

"Sometimes you do not truly observe something until you study it in reverse," writes Karim Issar upon arrival to New York City from Qatar in 1999. Fluent in numbers, logic, and business jargon yet often baffled by human connection, the young financial wizard soon creates a computer program named Kapitoil that predicts oil futures and reaps record profits for his company.

At first an introspective loner adrift in New York's social scenes, he anchors himself to his legendary boss Derek Schrub and Rebecca, a sensitive, disillusioned colleague who may understand him better than he does himself. Her influence, and his father's disapproval of Karim's Americanization, cause him to question the moral implications of Kapitoil, moving him toward a decision that will determine his future, his firm's, and to whom--and where--his loyalties lie.