High Finance
A Novel
Published on 2. September 2025
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-1-64604-865-6 (ISBN)
Description
Discover the novel called a "brilliant read, funny and poignant, with an insider's knowledge of Wall Street" that plunges readers into the financial sector's ruthless heart, where fortune, ambition, and betrayal collide in the rise and devastating fall of a financial titan.(New York Times bestselling author Elliott Ackerman)
Told from the perspectives of those in and around the pathways of money and power, High Finance is a debut novel that takes us inside one of the most volatile periods in Wall Street's history through the lens of Jed Czincosca, who came to Wall Street from Chicago in 1977 to get rich and rise to the pinnacle of American success.
He did what it takes to make it to the top, letting nothing hold him back. While orchestrating multibillion-dollar deals and becoming spectacularly wealthy, Jed binges on pot and alcohol, trades on inside information, cheats on his wife, and becomes one of Wall Street's key players. At the dawn of the new century, with a monomaniacal obsession Jed borrows to buy as many shares of Lehman Brothers as he can get his hands on, only to be wiped out on that fateful September day when Lehman was fed to the wolves. Forced from his four-bedroom duplex on Park Avenue to a cheap rental in the working-class town of Patchogue, is redemption and resurrection for Jed even possible?
Through a kaleidoscope of voices-his wife, his British secretary, his Marxist brother, the Lehman "informant," an internal auditor dedicated to Jed's destruction, and others-we come to intimately understand Jed and how the unpredictable external forces to which we are all susceptible shape and define us.
The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers was a pivotal moment in the 2008 crash of the financial markets that led to job losses, a housing market crisis, and a global recession whose effects are still being felt to this day. In telling the story of one man at the center of this moment, Ken Miller offers us a new perspective on Wall Street in the twenty-first century.
Told from the perspectives of those in and around the pathways of money and power, High Finance is a debut novel that takes us inside one of the most volatile periods in Wall Street's history through the lens of Jed Czincosca, who came to Wall Street from Chicago in 1977 to get rich and rise to the pinnacle of American success.
He did what it takes to make it to the top, letting nothing hold him back. While orchestrating multibillion-dollar deals and becoming spectacularly wealthy, Jed binges on pot and alcohol, trades on inside information, cheats on his wife, and becomes one of Wall Street's key players. At the dawn of the new century, with a monomaniacal obsession Jed borrows to buy as many shares of Lehman Brothers as he can get his hands on, only to be wiped out on that fateful September day when Lehman was fed to the wolves. Forced from his four-bedroom duplex on Park Avenue to a cheap rental in the working-class town of Patchogue, is redemption and resurrection for Jed even possible?
Through a kaleidoscope of voices-his wife, his British secretary, his Marxist brother, the Lehman "informant," an internal auditor dedicated to Jed's destruction, and others-we come to intimately understand Jed and how the unpredictable external forces to which we are all susceptible shape and define us.
The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers was a pivotal moment in the 2008 crash of the financial markets that led to job losses, a housing market crisis, and a global recession whose effects are still being felt to this day. In telling the story of one man at the center of this moment, Ken Miller offers us a new perspective on Wall Street in the twenty-first century.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkeley, CA
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 230 mm
Width: 158 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
485 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-64604-865-6 (9781646048656)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Ken Miller is President & CEO of Ken Miller Capital, LLC ("KMC"), a closely held merchant banking firm which invests in early-stage companies. He is the former Vice Chairman of Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and Credit Suisse First Boston. Mr. Miller has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Viacom, Inc., Intelsat Corporation, Kinder Care Learning Centers, CNA Surety, and Loews Corporation. He serves on the board of the National Committee on US-China Relations and PEN America and is an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mr. Miller received his B.A. with honors from the University of Michigan (1964), and, in addition to a M.A. from Yale University (1965 - Chinese Studies), received his J.D. from Harvard University (1969). His articles on China, venture capital, economic development, international relations, and the merger market have appeared in publications like for The Harvard Journal of Legislation, The Business Lawyer, The Far Eastern Economic Review, The New Republic, The Deal, The Nation, and Fortune, ForeignAffairs, and Time. High Finance is his first novel.
Mr. Miller received his B.A. with honors from the University of Michigan (1964), and, in addition to a M.A. from Yale University (1965 - Chinese Studies), received his J.D. from Harvard University (1969). His articles on China, venture capital, economic development, international relations, and the merger market have appeared in publications like for The Harvard Journal of Legislation, The Business Lawyer, The Far Eastern Economic Review, The New Republic, The Deal, The Nation, and Fortune, ForeignAffairs, and Time. High Finance is his first novel.