Though they're not quite the financial industry's answer to The Devil Wears Prada, these novels by current and former money men depict various dark sides of working on Wall Street.
| Bank by David Bledin (Little, Brown/Back Bay, May) | Das Kapital: A Novel of Love and Money Markets by Viken Berberian (S&S, June) | Mergers and Acquisitions by Dana Vachon (Riverhead, Apr.) | Wall and Meanby Tom Bernard (Norton, May) | |
| The author: | Former investment banker; now an economic consultant in D.C. | Works at a financial consulting company in Paris and London | Former analyst at JP Morgan and blogger known as "D-Nasty" | Traded bonds for 15+ years during the 1990s Wall Street boom |
| Plot: | A 20-something investment banker fools around with his buddies at work and ultimately comes of age. | A 20-something trader and a terrorist join forces; turns out they're involved with the same woman. | A 20-something investment banker learns his million-dollar job and wealthy girlfriend aren't what they seemed. | Young bond trader racks up gambling debt; runs from Brooklyn Mafia hit men. |
| For: | Newbies to the Street | Intellectual financial types with European leanings | Bankers who've left the business, happy they got out when they did | Readers 35 and up who want to relive the excitement of the '93 bond-market explosion |
| Favored narrative technique: | Nicknames (e.g., protagonist's boss is the Sycophant; edgy co-worker is Postal Guy) | Know-it-all footnotes (e.g., Chase Manhattan bank is "now JP Morgan Chase") | Lurid descriptions of excess: of women, apartment views, plasma TV screens | Rapid, slangy dialogue (e.g., "Ya got another joint?") |
