Currency Books

A darkly comic short story about American class divides and coming-of-age regrets by Tom Perrotta, the New York Times bestselling author of Election and The Leftovers . Henry “Digger” Diller has never been anyone’s MVP—he’s the guy who gets called up from jayvee soccer when the star player gets hurt and who volunteers to take his crush’s best friend to the prom. But Digger is pretty happy with life in the middle of Warfield High’s pecking order. Then he strikes up a friendship with Carlos, a new student from Honduras, who faces his own set of difficulties beyond the drama of adolescent life. Everyone loves Carlos: he’s a welcome addition to the team and to Digger’s tight friend group. Digger and Carlos are inseparable—until Digger, who’s focused on his own future, thinks maybe Carlos is getting too popular. Tom Perrotta’s Me and Carlos is part of Currency , a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse. If time is money, deposit here with interest. Read or listen in a single sitting.

An unnervingly funny and sharply observant story about the privilege, class division, and purposeful lives of old friends by Curtis Sittenfeld, the New York Times bestselling author of Rodham . Andy Wofford, middle-aged father and English teacher at a third-tier private school, receives a surprising invitation for a drink from an old college classmate. Once awkward and forgettable, Michael Kinnick has become a famous, wealthy, and absurdly confident lifestyle guru. Of all the people who’d want to catch up, why Michael? After thirty divergent years, why now? Mildly apprehensive, Andy is also very curious. Curtis Sittenfeld’s The Tomorrow Box is part of Currency , a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse. If time is money, deposit here with interest. Read or listen in a single sitting.

Accustomed to being used, a jack-of-all-odd-jobs is torn between desire and duty in a short story about loneliness and wounded love by Cristina Henríquez, the author of The Book of Unknown Americans . Alberto has been alone for the majority of his life, making his way as a restaurant worker and at the beck and call of wealthy and entitled Don Antonio. This time for hire, Alberto arrives at Antonio’s summer house prepared to attend to its regular maintenance. Instead he finds only Antonio’s heartbroken wife, Lola, and a task that could alter his loyalty to his employer forever. Cristina Henríquez’s The Summer House is part of Currency , a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse. If time is money, deposit here with interest. Read or listen in a single sitting.

Poised between his lush introversion and the brutal realm of his every day, a young artist considers the price of precarity in this powerful short story by Justin Torres, the author of We the Animals . A promising illustrator moves into adulthood contemplating all that he’s had to do for money—from the mundane to the grueling to the sexual. He also reflects on everything that has slipped away, including a boyfriend, close acquaintances, success, and allure. But sketch by sketch, he sometimes feels the enormity of all that is possible. Justin Torres’s Crewelwork is part of Currency , a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse. If time is money, deposit here with interest. Read or listen in a single sitting.

Two women reflect on the value of their lives in a wry short story of male privilege and undeserved rewards by Emma Cline, the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls . Keri and Paula are strangers with something rotten in common: the annoying Devlin brothers. Keri is an investor whose expertise is dismissed on the entrepreneurial reality show that shot the boys to fame. Paula is the boys’ accommodating neighbor who has suffered their ingratitude for years. The world is wide open for the Devlins after their overnight success. But for Keri and Paula? For all it’s worth, they’re coming face-to-face with the maddening business of being a woman. Emma Cline’s Rewards is part of Currency , a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse. If time is money, deposit here with interest. Read or listen in a single sitting.

A twenty-eight-year-old entry-level worker at a design firm navigates the corporate landscape in a quick and delicious satire by Kiley Reid, the New York Times bestselling author of Such a Fun Age . Yumi Parr is the new project coordinator of a Manhattan design agency. Set apart from her coworkers by their race, salaries, alma maters, perfect teeth, and waistbands, Yumi bears their grunt work. After one microaggression too many, she decides to implement a change. Either senior white employees with their mouthfuls of wokespeak will comply or Yumi will learn a difficult lesson about the realities of modern business culture. Kiley Reid’s Simplexity is part of Currency , a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse. If time is money, deposit here with interest. Read or listen in a single sitting.

A razor-sharp short story about anonymity, mutual deception, and the perils of overexposure—debut fiction by Jia Tolentino, the New York Times bestselling author of Trick Mirror . With the pandemic looming, a listless social media editor accepts a job working for her former college friend Seraphina. A popular Instagram influencer, the subject of obsessive message-board surveillance, and a newly minted Karen of the Day, Seraphina is living out 2020 in the luxury of her “ultimate self-quarantine.” As the year escalates into upheaval and chaos, both women try, in increasingly secretive and complicated ways, to maintain the upper hand. Jia Tolentino’s I Would Be Doing This Anyway is part of Currency , a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse. If time is money, deposit here with interest. Read or listen in a single sitting.

He tends to his garden and bees. He keeps quiet. He avoids drama. Until one transgression causes an emotional adventure in this heartfelt short story by Yiyun Li, a PEN/Hemingway Award–winning author. Lonely, thanklessly courteous, and without the benefit of status, Gordon Schulmeister is only tolerated in his younger, hip, and gentrified Oakland neighborhood. Now, amid the tensions of a pandemic, the cantankerousness of his landlord, and dog sitting an intimidating pit bull, Gordon has never felt the target on his back so acutely. To keep his neighbors off his heels, with some hope and a sigh, Gordon might have to finally speak up. Yiyun Li’s If You Are Lonely and You Know It is part of Currency , a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse. If time is money, deposit here with interest. Read or listen in a single sitting.