Generation Desperation

The modern-day American dream: one man's journey into the depths of Reddit trading forums chasing the promise of a 'better life' 'A fantastically compelling personal story that is also the story of a generation . . . Told with perfect timing.' - SIMON KUPER 'Searing insights into the challenges of coming of age in the 21st century . . . an instructive tale about a smart young man looking to grow up in the precariousness of our time.' - BLOOMBERG AS FEATURED IN THE SUNDAY TIMES -------- AFTER THE RISE, THERE COMES A FALL. In 2020, Alexander Hurst was 29 years old and broke, living as a writer in a cramped Paris flatshare. There were murmurs that a global pandemic was coming. Financial stability seemed unattainable, so far removed from his reality - the reality of the generation who came of age during the 2008 financial crisis. On a whim, he poured his meagre savings into highly risky options trading. Within a year this small set of stocks was worth $1.2 million. Enough to turn his life on its head - but not in the way he had imagined, as he began a slow-motion descent into losing it all. In exploring Alexander's remarkable rise and fall from wealth, Generation Desperation grapples with the vital questions of our age: what do class and status mean in a late-stage capitalist society? Can everyone really build the life they want? Or is there a cost to pursuing money above everything? Generation Desperation is an urgent, unmissable fable for our times. --------- 'Has an appealing timelessness . . . Hurst weaves the personal and the generational together with seamless ease in a thrilling book.' - SEB EMINA 'A riveting, tender, and painfully timely epic about what really matters.' - ANGELICA FERRARA 'Clever and brutally honest.' - LINDSEY TRAMUTA

The modern-day American dream: one man's journey into the depths of Reddit trading forums chasing the promise of a 'better life' 'A fantastically compelling personal story that is also the story of a generation . . . Told with perfect timing.' - SIMON KUPER 'Searing insights into the challenges of coming of age in the 21st century . . . an instructive tale about a smart young man looking to grow up in the precariousness of our time.' - BLOOMBERG AS FEATURED IN THE SUNDAY TIMES -------- AFTER THE RISE, THERE COMES A FALL. In 2020, Alexander Hurst was 29 years old and broke, living as a writer in a cramped Paris flatshare. There were murmurs that a global pandemic was coming. Financial stability seemed unattainable, so far removed from his reality - the reality of the generation who came of age during the 2008 financial crisis. On a whim, he poured his meagre savings into highly risky options trading. Within a year this small set of stocks was worth $1.2 million. Enough to turn his life on its head - but not in the way he had imagined, as he began a slow-motion descent into losing it all. In exploring Alexander's remarkable rise and fall from wealth, Generation Desperation grapples with the vital questions of our age: what do class and status mean in a late-stage capitalist society? Can everyone really build the life they want? Or is there a cost to pursuing money above everything? Generation Desperation is an urgent, unmissable fable for our times. --------- 'Has an appealing timelessness . . . Hurst weaves the personal and the generational together with seamless ease in a thrilling book.' - SEB EMINA 'A riveting, tender, and painfully timely epic about what really matters.' - ANGELICA FERRARA 'Clever and brutally honest.' - LINDSEY TRAMUTA