“A brilliant book. Karim Issar is one of the freshest, funniest heroes I’ve come across in a long time.” — Ben Fountain, bestselling author of Brief Encounters with Che Guevara “An innovative and incisive meditation on the wages of corporate greed, the fundamental darkness of its vision lit by the author’s great comic intelligence and wit.” — Kathryn Davis, author of The Thin Place, Hell: A Novel , and Versailles With a fresh and singular voice, Teddy Wayne marks his literary debut with the story of one 26 year old Middle Eastern man’s attempt to live the American Dream in New York City. Like the award-winning Netherland and The Reluctant Fundamentalist , Kapitoil provides an absorbing look into American culture and New York finance from an outsider’s perspective. "Sometimes you do not truly observe something until you study it in reverse," writes Karim Issar upon arrival to New York City from Qatar in 1999. Fluent in numbers, logic, and business jargon yet often baffled by human connection, the young financial wizard soon creates a computer program named Kapitoil that predicts oil futures and reaps record profits for his company. At first an introspective loner adrift in New York's social scenes, he anchors himself to his legendary boss Derek Schrub and Rebecca, a sensitive, disillusioned colleague who may understand him better than he does himself. Her influence, and his father's disapproval of Karim's Americanization, cause him to question the moral implications of Kapitoil, moving him toward a decision that will determine his future, his firm's, and to whom—and where—his loyalties lie. *Starred Review* It’s October 1, 1999, and young, brilliant, self-taught programmer Karim Issar is transferred from the Doha, Qatar, office of Schrub Equities to Manhattan for three months to help the high-flying firm get past Y2K without calamity. He finds the work worthwhile but routine, and his always-active mind studies cultural differences and the idiomatic English of his podmates. Within three weeks of his arrival, he has developed a program that predicts oil futures. Schrub’s profits rise dramatically, and Karim gets a plush new office, a 300 percent salary increase, and the personal attention of CEO Derek Schrub. As his stock soars, he embarks on a relationship with Rebecca, his former podmate; with her help, Karim begins to see that making money for the sake of making money isn’t a fully rewarding way of life. Told through Karim’s journal entries, this wonderfully assured debut novel, at once poignant, insightful, and funny, details Karim’s passage through a new world of corporate sharks, Manhattan clubs, museums, Bob Dylan lyrics, and personal growth. Karim’s English, always grammatically correct but stilted with terms from science, mathematics, computing, and business, is a delight. Best of all, however, is simply being inside Karim’s head as he ponders Jackson Pollock’s paintings, baseball, programming, and the mysteries of love and life in the U.S. --Thomas Gaughan “What a wonderful character Karim is―the hapless, hilarious, math-obsessed hero of Teddy Wayne’s first novel. KAPITOIL is a delight. Who knew oil futures could be such fun?” - Joshua Henkin, author of SWIMMING ACROSS THE HUDSON and MATRIMONY “KAPITOIL is an unlikely Cinderella tale, narrated by Karim Issar, an equally unlikely and endearing Cinderella. Set in those bygone days at the tail-end of the 20th century, when the shadows of the Twin Towers were still draped across the landscape, Teddy Wayne’s debut novel is an innovative and incisive meditation on the wages of corporate greed, the fundamental darkness of its vision lit by the author’s great comic intelligence and wit.” - Kathryn Davis, author of THE THIN PLACE, HELL: A NOVEL, and VERSAILLES “[A] brilliant book. Karim Issar is one of the freshest, funniest heroes I’ve come across in a long time... In its honesty, humor, intelligence, and hard-won wisdom, Kapitoil is ‘Karim-esque’ to the nth degree, and that is a very good way to be.” - Ben Fountain, bestselling author of Brief Encounters with Che Guevara “Teddy Wayne’s debut novel is an innovative and incisive meditation on the wages of corporate greed, the fundamental darkness of its vision lit by the author’s great comic intelligence and wit.” - Kathryn Davis, author of The Thin Place, Hell: A Novel, and Versailles “This wonderfully assured debut novel, at once poignant, insightful, and funny…is a delight. Best of all, however, is simply being inside Karim’s head as he ponders Jackson Pollock’s paintings, baseball, programming, and the mysteries of love and life in the U.S. ” - Booklist (starred review) “[Karim]’s a type―the nerdy and needy young immigrant―that we’re all familiar with but that no other writer, as far as I know, has invented such a funny and compelling voice and story for.” - Jonathan Franzen to TheDailyBeast.com Named one of the top ten first novels of 2010 by Booklist! “[A] funny and incisive novel