Andrew Lipstein’s debut novel, Last Resort (2022), was a story of literary theft that began as an intelligent satire of millennial mores but devolved into a humdrum thriller as it went on. The Vegan, Lipstein’s quick-to-appear follow-up, is altogether more consistent and impressive.

Its narrator, 38-year-old Herschel Caine, is co-manager of Atra Arca, a hot new hedge fund that has devised an algorithm that predicts market trends before they become trends. All that’s needed for it to work is data – ‘an immense trove’ of it. For this, the company is depending on the promised $220 million investment of Colin Eubanks. Only, Colin is getting cold feet.

Set against surprisingly exciting office scenes are vignettes of Herschel’s home life. This too is at a critical juncture. Newly arrived in a dauntingly exclusive part of Brooklyn, Herschel and his wife, Franny, invite neighbours Philip and Clara Guggenheim (‘yes, that one’) to dinner, and extend a third