LEVERAGE: QUERY LETTER

Dear [Agent],

My name is Amran Gowani, and I'm a former Wall Street analyst who’s covered all manner of white-collar chicanery. I’ve watched a speculative M&A bubble inflate and (inevitably) burst, witnessed CFOs commit accounting fraud, and seen short sellers manipulate stock prices. I even hosted an investor roadshow for a pair of pharmaceutical executives turned convicted felons.

I’ve drawn upon those experiences, and the increasingly surreal headlines in The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, to craft my darkly hilarious Wall Street thriller, LEVERAGE [72,500 words]. I’m confident this project will appeal to fans of Michael Lewis and Oliver Bullough, viewers of Billions and Succession, and readers of Mateo Askaripour’s BLACK BUCK, Raven Leilani’s LUSTER, Elaine Hsieh Chou’s DISORIENTATION, and Leigh Stein’s SELF CARE.

What’s more, with old school bank runs, newfangled crypto scams, and “AI”-induced hype buffeting the economy, our next financial crisis is always percolating, and now could be the perfect moment to shop a Wall Street-themed novel with a ripped-from-the-headlines feel. Market crashes and brazen corporate skullduggery often produce a spate of popular books and films—think The Big Short—and LEVERAGE could fit neatly in that tradition.

A quick plot summary:

Ali Jafar’s a superstar in the making at notorious hedge fund Prism Capital. But fortunes change fast on Wall Street. When his biggest investment literally goes up in smoke, precipitating a global financial crisis, Ali loses more than just $300 million in a single afternoon. The crash shatters his fragile sense of self-worth, which was hard-earned through years of proving he’s just as good, if not better, than the Ivy Leaguers preening around Prism’s polished and pristine offices.

He’s certain he’ll be fired. But Paul Kingsley, Prism’s obscenely rich and politically connected founder, isn’t that merciful. He gives Ali an impossible ultimatum instead: recover the lost money in three months, or become the fall guy for the government’s nascent insider-trading investigation into the firm.

Dejected, depressed, and desperate to save his skin, Ali turns to high finance’s dark side. When [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS], [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS]. As the walls close in, Ali begins cracking under the pressure, and feels a suffocating desire to act upon his suicidal impulses. To survive, he’ll have to outfox one of the world’s most powerful men, and decide if he values the dearest asset of all: himself.

When I’m not working on a novel, or chasing my two young children around our Chicago home as a stay-at-home dad, I write Field Research, a popular humor newsletter which raises money for charitable organizations such as Sandy Hook Promise and Moms Demand Action. My story “Unruly Preschooler” won Third Prize in the 2021 Chicago Writers Association Flash Fiction contest and was collected in Volume 4 of The Write City Review.

Finally, three beta readers have provided blurbs for LEVERAGE, which I’ve pasted below. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to your response.

Best,

Amran

“LEVERAGE is a wild ride that is, at various turns, funny, dark, and heart-wrenching. This thriller will make you burn through the pages and revel in twist after twist. By the end, you’ll leave satisfied, entertained, and in possession of a far greater understanding of both the Wu-Tang Clan's discography and what can happen when capitalistic greed is stretched to its furthest extremes.”

—Andrew Boryga, author of Victim (Doubleday, 2024) 

“I love a good Wall Street thriller, but I especially love one with this kind of depth and nuance—a keen and brilliant sense of the absurdity of it all. Amran is a sharp and funny, often surprisingly moving writer.”

—Catherine Baab, author of Poe for Your Problems: Uncommon Advice from History’s Least Likely Self-Help Guru (Hachette, 2021) 

“No one else is doing what Amran is. He’s smarter than funny people, funnier than smart people, and has more heart and edge than both.”

—Dennard Dayle, author of Everything Abridged (Overlook, 2022) and How to Dodge a Cannonball (Holt, 2024)

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LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/amrangowani/ [ACTIVE!]