Ways and Means, a debut novel by writing alumnus Daniel Lefferts '19, was published by Abrams Books in February 2024.
Lefferts’ first novel follows the trajectory of Alistair McCabe, who has recently moved to New York to start a finance career. Alistair is young, gay, smart, and handsome, and in coming to New York, seeks to make money to better his mother’s life in the Rust Belt of his childhood. After some time, Alistair’s ambitions are foiled: he amasses significant student debt and, out of desperation, takes a job with an immoral and highly enigmatic billionaire. When Alistair unearths a dark secret about his boss, his life is put in danger, forcing him to go on the run.
Associate Professor Gary Shteyngart called Ways and Means “a work of enormous wit, humor, and passion that captures life in turbo capitalist America with compassion and grace.”
“Totally absorbing," said Writing alumna and Adjunct Assistant Professor Jessi Jezewska Stevens ’18. "Lefferts delivers The Great Gatsby for the 21st-century: irreverent, sexy, and sharp. A major event.”
Daniel Lefferts lives in the Hudson Valley. His literary criticism appears in BOMB and Guernica and he has published several author profiles in Publisher’s Weekly. He has taught writing at Columbia University and Rutgers.
Ways and Means is available for purchase here.
