The Futures

De: Anna Pitoniak

Narrado por: Sarah Mollo-Christensen

In this dazzling debut novel about love and betrayal, a young couple moves to New York City in search of success-only to learn that the lives they dream of may come with dangerous strings attached.

Julia and Evan fall in love as undergraduates at Yale. For Evan, a scholarship student from a rural Canadian town, Yale is a whole new world, and Julia -- blond, beautiful, and rich -- fits perfectly into the future he's envisioned for himself. After graduation, and on the eve of the great financial meltdown of 2008, they move together to New York City, where Evan lands a job at a hedge fund. But Julia, whose privileged upbringing grants her an easy but wholly unsatisfying job with a nonprofit, feels increasingly shut out of Evan's secretive world.

With the market crashing and banks failing, Evan becomes involved in a high-stakes deal at work -- a deal that, despite the assurances of his Machiavellian boss, begins to seem more than slightly suspicious. Meanwhile, Julia reconnects with someone from her past who offers a glimpse of a different kind of live. As the economy craters, and as Evan and Julia spin into their separate orbits, they each find that they are capable of much more -- good and bad -- than they'd ever imagined.

Rich in suspense and insight, Anna Pitoniak's gripping debut reveals the fragile yet enduring nature of our connections: to one another and to ourselves. The Futures is a glittering story of a couple coming of age, and a searing portrait of what it's like to be young and full of hope in New York City, a place that so often seems determined to break us down -- but ultimately may be the very thing that saves us.

"The next great New York novel."-Town & Country

"A story that feels familiar yet wholly original, like every heartbreak ever."-Marie Claire

"Pitoniak's precise and incisive powers of observation give us a book with startling grace notes ... As in earlier, seminal novels about similar 20-something cohorts-among them Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City, Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar-the city is another mirror character, a puzzle the protagonists must solve as they come to grips with their own lives."-NPR.org

Reseñas de la Crítica

"An emotional page-turner."
—Cosmopolitan

"Boy meets girl. They fall in love and everything's picture perfect. Until the financial crisis hits and boy gets involved in a shady deal at work. This read is The Big Short meets Serendipity."—theSkimm

"The smart, fast-paced book calls to mind a period when bright young things moved to New York to work for Goldman Sachs and not Google ... Part of a larger conversation about coming of age that includes novels like Adelle Waldman's The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. and Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children."—Town & Country

"An especially good [novel]...about the things you believe in when you're young, and what breaks your heart along the way."
—Refinery29, "One of the 2017 Books We're Most Excited About"

"[A] debut novel written by and for the literary millennial ... Pitoniak maintains her keen eye for the universal insecurities facing her generation today, from romantic uncertainties and the relative benefits and downsides of hedge fund and nonprofit jobs to the emotional effort it requires to negotiate the predetermined facts of one's upbringing with the person one chooses to become."—Harper's Bazaar, "13 Books You Need to Read in January"

"Wall Street meets Girls."
—Elle Canada

"Acutely drawn ... We were transported back to our younger selves and that universal feeling of trying to make sense of an uncertain future ahead ... Already looking forward to what Anna Pitoniak will write next."—goop

"Pitoniak's debut focuses on that time of life that is at turns both exhilarating and terrifying: right after getting out of college, when you're forced to confront who you are and who you want to be, when you know life is just beginning, but you're also starting to feel like many of your options are fading away."—Nylon, "Best New Books of 2017"

"Following in the footsteps of classic debut novels like Rona Jaffe's The Best of Everything and Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City, Pitoniak charts a tumultuous period in New York City history that transforms a group of recent college grads in ways they never anticipated. As in Kristopher Jansma's latest, Why We Came to the City, also set in the heady days of 2008, Pitoniak's ingenuous youths are helpless against the risk and potential they perceive lurking around each corner."
—Village Voice

"The Futures stands out for its beautiful writing, emotional depth and evocative feel."
—New York Post

"St. Elmo's Fire for millennials."
—Bustle

"Pitoniak's inspired debut centers on two recent college grads who move to New York City together during the 2008 recession and watch their relationship change drastically."—InStyle

Could been good but...

The story is OK but the female narrator, Sarah Mollo-Christensen, read the entire book in a breathy, almost whisper - making the female character seem like a needy air head. This is a book that would be better read than listened to!

Good Story - Hard to listen

I like the story a lot but couldn't stand the breathy way the performer that played Julia interpreted the character. Irritating. It made an unlikeable character detestable.

Ruined by narrators

I read this book on paper and really enjoyed it. Anna Pitoniak is a good author. However, when I listened to it on audio, I couldn’t even focus on the story because the narrators are SO BAD. The female narrator is breathy and whiny and adds weird upticks at the ends of sentences. Male narrator sounds like what I’d imagine a brick wall would sound like if it could talk. No emotion or inflection. Really disappointing.

Fluff book

Really decent listen for those who are just out of college or looking to see light on what happens to post-grads. I really enjoyed the two authors and two perspectives of situations. However, I was very interested in more happening towards the end. It was a let down after the climax.

Enjoyable

I really liked the book overall- I wasn't super excited about the ending, though-- but overall enjoyable.

Struggling toward adulthood

I really liked this finely written story highlighting the challenges of life after college. Although I'm WAY older than Julia and Evan ( the two narrators) I could relate to their respective struggles to find a place and a career in the "adult" world. I experiences some of their same insecurity and doubt. Both of the narrators were good, but especially Sarah Molokai-Christiansen.

Millennial Must Read for the Quarter Life Crisis

Would you listen to The Futures again? Why?

This piece was beautifully written tale of coming of adulthood in the 21st century- romance, intrigue and heartfelt honesty.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Futures?

I believe it accurately portrays those acquired post college years that leave many young people today to feel like they are floundering. It truly encompasses that painfully isolating feeling in your 20's/30's that everyone is moving forward and you are stagnant.

Disappointing

Thought I would enjoy and relate to this book, but struggled to like the main characters, especially Julia. Difficult to finish.

Good storyline / bad readers

The two narrators were terrible - breathy, annoying and not believable. Would've enjoyed it so much more if the voices were different.

Annoying readers

What's with the nervous little gasp at the end of every other sentence? Such insecure characters without any spine! I finally quit listening. .