Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Fiction & Related items

THE PARTNER TRACK

Helen Wan

Captivating novel about power, race and how to choose between money and ethics.

In the eyes of her corporate law firm, Ingrid Yung is a "two-fer". As a Chinese-American woman preparing to be ushered into the elite rank of partner after eight years of toiling as an associate, she's the face of Parsons Valentine & Hunt LLP's recruiting brochures. But behind the firm's welcoming façade lies the scotch-sipping, cigar-smoking old-boy network that shuts out lawyers like Ingrid.

To compensate, Ingrid gamely plays in the softball league, schmoozes in the corporate cafeteria, and puts in the billable hours until a horrifically offensive performance at the law firm's annual summer outing throws the carefully constructed image way out of equilibrium.

Scrambling to do damage control, Parsons Valentine announces a new "Diversity Initiative" and commands a reluctant Ingrid to spearhead the effort, taking her priority away from the enormous deal that was to be the final step in securing partnership. For the first time, Ingrid finds herself at odds with her colleagues--including her handsome, golden-boy boyfriend--in a clash of class, race, and sexual politics. Ultimately, she must choose between the safety and prestige of partnership at a firm whose ethics she finds increasingly untenable, or risk throwing away the American Dream that she and her immigrant parents have come so close to achieving.

Available products
Book Published 2013-09-17 by St. Martin's Press
Book Published 2013-09-17 by St. Martin's Press

Comments

Smart, incisive, and fast-paced, THE PARTNER TRACK is a sparklingly readable look at the inner workings of a Wall Street law firm -- from the vantage point of a brainy, beautiful and self-doubting Asian-American associate. Wan has the remarkable ability to make you feel as if "you are there" - inside the law firm, inside protagonist Ingrid Yung's head. I did not want to put this book down.

The Partner Track is a marvelous story about female ambition and power, about betrayal, identity, and the conflict between self-interest and desire. In short: all the big, human stuff. Read it.

What a terrific debut novel. Ingrid Yung is a fresh, funny, and fearless heroine. Her razor-sharp wit and keen observations of gender, race and class politics in corporate America make THE PARTNER TRACK an entertaining, engrossing and ultimately deeply compelling read.

A wholly engrossing behind-the-scenes look at real life behind the pomp, power and prestige of a high-powered law firm that wants to still play by a 1950s rule book.

Hell hath no fury like Helen Wan's savvy heroine in this terrific debut. We all know women like Ingrid Yung: the well-educated over-achiever who does everything right to ensure a long, productive journey on a lucrative career path. But what happens when someone blows up the path? The Partner Track is a delicious, satisfying read for anyone who has fantasized about getting the better of the boss, the ex-lover, the corporate powers that be--or all three. Ingrid Yung has done it for all of us.

Behind Helen Wan’s wit and sparkling prose is a poignant and at times, painfully honest tale of loyalty, ambition and sacrifice. Funny, fragile, sometimes bold, often unsure, Ingrid Yung is one of those unforgettable heroines that you actually miss, like a dear friend, when the story’s over.