The latest novel by Teddy Wayne, MFA ’07, The Winner is a dark, explosive literary thriller that brilliantly skewers the elite.
In the summer of 2020, law school graduate Conor O’Toole finds himself in a gated community near Cape Cod having negotiated a sweet deal: in exchange for tennis lessons, he receives free lodging in a luxurious guest cottage, far from the cramped Yonkers apartment he shares with his diabetic mother.
In this oceanfront paradise, however, new clients prove hard to come by, and Conor has bills to pay. When Catherine, a sharp-tongued divorcée, offers double his usual rate, he soon realizes she is expecting additional, off the court services for her money, and Conor tumbles into a secret erotic affair unlike anything he’s experienced before.
Despite his steamy flings with a woman twice his age, he simultaneously finds himself falling for an artsy, outspoken girl he meets on the beach. With cautious, strategic planning, Conor somehow manages this tangled web—until he makes one final, irreversible mistake.
Whiting Award winner Wayne’s unputdownable novel is cinematic, shocking, and a psychological masterpiece.