First year Fiction student Shanley Jane Kearney will publish her debut novel, QUANT, with Simon and Schuster's Simon Six imprint in spring 2027. The new imprint, led by Simon and Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp, only publishes six carefully selected titles a year.
QUANT follows three prodigies in the elite world of Wall Street finance as they navigate the twisted high-frequency trading floor, its stratospheric opportunities for success and failure. Over the course of one fatal year, the trio spirals out of control, fueled by ambition, love, and drugs.
The synopsis reads: "As their moral compasses lose focus, only one question remains: in a game of perfect information, what can’t you see coming?" QUANT was sold at auction to Simon Six, in association with Scribner. The deal was brokered by agent Sasha Landauer at Writers House.
Kearney was a tech startup entrepreneur before enrolling at Columbia. "I am so excited to publish QUANT and deeply honored to join Simon & Schuster! Bringing this book into the world is a dream come true," she said.
UK imprint Abacus obtained publishing rights for QUANT in the Commonwealth through a pre-emptive offer. Clare Smith, the imprint's publisher, called QUANT "unputdownable." Smith told The Bookseller, "I read this in one compulsive day. It’s like The Secret History goes to Wall Street, a sweeping, addictive novel about three young talents who race to succeed in their first job and destroy themselves in the process."
QUANT has also sold to Gallimard in France, Anagrama in Spain, Einaudi in Italy, and De Bezige Bij in the Netherlands.
Shanley Jane Kearney is a Puerto Rican-American writer who worked for four high profile tech startups before starting her own. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in English and is a current MFA candidate in Fiction at Columbia University School of the Arts. Her fiction has been published and awarded in Phoebe Journal, PULP Literature, Flash 500, and Third Wednesday.
