Generation Desperation

Wealth, poverty, and what it means to live a 'good life': this is the must-read story for fans of The Trading Game and The Psychology of Money.

'A fantastically compelling personal story that is also the story of a generation . . . Told with perfect timing.' - SIMON KUPER

'Somewhere in the multiverse, innumerable possibilities are collapsing into infinite different realities. Am I happier in any of them? I still don't know. The answer to that question is just one more thing that $1.2 million could never buy.'

In 2020, Alexander Hurst was 29 years old and broke, living as a writer in a cramped Paris flat-share. 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. It was more money than Alexander - and his family - could ever have conceived of, set to turn his life on its head. And then, soon after, it was gone. He had lost 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.