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All the Beautiful People We Once Knew

Burned out and alienated, Kilgore associate attorney Stephen Harker spends his work days defending insurance companies against spurious litigation commenced by private soldiers who supported US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Harker’s charismatic, womanizing boss assigns him a case defending insurance behemoth WorldScore against a lawsuit led by Major Mike “Bud” Thomas, a veteran, former contract soldier, and divorced father seeking compensation for PTSD and injuries suffered in Afghanistan. Just as Harker turns the firm’s full legal power on the wounded, unstable veteran, he commences an unhealthy relationship with his boss’s estranged bohemian wife, setting himself up for a downward existential spiral that almost destroys Harker, until a brutal act of violence presents him with a final shot at redemption. All the Beautiful People We Once Knew is a riveting insider’s indictment of the world of the corporate elite and the savage determination with which they fight to maintain control. In a society where the very institutions that should support our returning veterans instead view them with suspicion, this stunning debut is a grim reflection on the ever growing rift between the classes.

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REVIEWS

“All the Beautiful People We Once Knew is surprising and strange; an endlessly inventive story of corporate insurance litigation, class warfare, and drunken love.”

— Ben Winters, New York Times bestselling author of Underground Airlines

"Carlson’s controlled authorial voice is further enlivened by clever wordplay and a Delilloan obsession with etymology and news stories. Carlson deftly steers clear of a clichéd good-versus-evil, David-versus-Goliath plot as he provides a nuanced exploration of the questionable motivations of all parties. The result is a more satisfying, Franzenian interplay of politics and class with hints of the stylistic reportage of Tom Wolfe. For fans of the aforementioned authors as well as later Bret Easton Ellis."

- Booklist

"These eleven authors are making their mark on literature, and deserve a standing ovation for their marvelous first novels."

- Signature Reads

“Part indictment of the world of worker’s compensation litigation, part portrait of a toxic love triangle built on narcissism and dependency, part surrealist rendering of a Manhattan teetering between corporate high-rise glitz and misfit underground counterculture, All the Beautiful People We Once Knew deftly navigates a chasm of privilege and depravity before plummeting to its inevitable conclusion. Carlson clearly knows the world that his novel depicts; he also has some serious writing chops. The result is a story that pulses from beginning to end with a gritty and unsettling realism.”

— James Charlesworth, author of The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill

" ‘All The Beautiful People We Once Knew’ Skewers Life In Biglaw....a unique, funny, and challenging novel about life in Biglaw."

- Harry Graff, Above the Law

“Edward Carlson’s view of the elite corporate jungle is just as dark, fanged, and dangerous as the real thing. A tough portrait of a hard world by a writer who’s clearly done his time in the territory.”

- Buzzy Jackson, author of The Inspirational Atheist

“Kudos to first-time novelist Carlson for taking on a complicated subject that is timely and significant.”

— Kirkus Reviews