The recessionistas - Alexandra Lebenthal

The story begins the day after Labour Day, 2008, when the bottom is about to drop out of the economy. Hedge fund owner John Cutter is freshly divorced and nearly in financial ruin. When he concocts a scheme to redeem himself, he enlists Lehman Brothers investment banker Blake Somerset as an accomplice. Blake is ripe for recruitment given that he too is on the verge of being in dire financial straits given Lehman's decline and imminent bankruptcy. Blake's socialite wife Grigsby is barely aware of her changing world to begin with, and has no idea of what a perilous situation her husband is about to enter into. As autumn unfolds, Grigsby's fairytale life begins to unwind. Meanwhile, John and Blake's scheme comes to light when no-nonsense, street-smart Renee Parker begins her new position as John's executive assistant. Convinced that something is amiss, she enlists her friend Sasha Silver, who is well-connected in the financial world, to help her to decipher what is happening. This story of expulsion from a modern-day Garden of Eden captures what happens when lives that were only designed to acquire more suddenly face the prospect of a great deal less.