What do you think?
Rate this book
The Hermit
The Hermit is a riveting debut novel about the slow unraveling of an aging finance bro—a successful New York bond trader and man about town—who grows disenchanted with his daily hustle and is forced to confront the nameless discontent that haunts the Masters of the Universe.
The Hermit explores the world of high-stakes investment banking with a sharp eye for the existential ramifications of this calling. The plot follows the daily routine of Andy Sylvain, a 50-year-old Manhattan bond trader who grows disenchanted with his daily hustle and starts to contemplate a clean break. He’s a Master of the Universe whose thoughts and inner rationales betray a lost and confused man who cannot even describe what ails him, much less outline a cure for his malaise. Written in a breezy style, the novel’s levity is deceptive: underneath sparkling descriptions of conspicuous consumption, glitzy parties, and the intricacies of trading-floor battles, the reader will find layered meditations on the poignant conflict between the allure of a rational, technocratic world and the promise of serenity that beckons to Andy from the depth of the forested wilderness.
The Hermit explores the world of high-stakes investment banking with a sharp eye for the existential ramifications of this calling. The plot follows the daily routine of Andy Sylvain, a 50-year-old Manhattan bond trader who grows disenchanted with his daily hustle and starts to contemplate a clean break. He’s a Master of the Universe whose thoughts and inner rationales betray a lost and confused man who cannot even describe what ails him, much less outline a cure for his malaise. Written in a breezy style, the novel’s levity is deceptive: underneath sparkling descriptions of conspicuous consumption, glitzy parties, and the intricacies of trading-floor battles, the reader will find layered meditations on the poignant conflict between the allure of a rational, technocratic world and the promise of serenity that beckons to Andy from the depth of the forested wilderness.
- GenresFiction
270 pages, Paperback
Published December 1, 2023
6 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 28, 2023
Katerina Grishakova is a former bond trader, now seemingly an author. It is obvious from her writing that she is not American born. There are so many long words, used incorrectly that it almost seems as she is trying to impress us with her vocabulary. Birds "flittering" across a lake? Really?
Anyway, as to the novel, it is chock full of so much that it is difficult to discern what it is about. Andy is 50 years old when it begins, and a successful bond trader. Grushakoval obviously knows a lot about this profession, but does not make it clear, at least to me, what he actually does. I just know that he uses a Bloomberg terminal, as well as three other screens to do it.
Andy has an (almost) ex-wife and an 18-year-old daughter who is a freshman in college. Both these women are living a more genuine existence than Andy is. At least I think that was the contrast the author intended. The title is not explained until the very end. In between there are adults playing silly games, bros (?), women in a man's world, rehab facilities like none I've heard of before, technology, a right-wing cookout, and a Russian Orthodox funeral. It's a novel trying to say too much about too many things in our society.
Overall, this book gave me a headache, forcing me to massage my temples like some of its female characters do. Somehow, though, I feel that his author will get a good editor and have something more comprehensible to offer in her next effort. Thanks to NetGalley and Heresy Press for the ARC copy.
Anyway, as to the novel, it is chock full of so much that it is difficult to discern what it is about. Andy is 50 years old when it begins, and a successful bond trader. Grushakoval obviously knows a lot about this profession, but does not make it clear, at least to me, what he actually does. I just know that he uses a Bloomberg terminal, as well as three other screens to do it.
Andy has an (almost) ex-wife and an 18-year-old daughter who is a freshman in college. Both these women are living a more genuine existence than Andy is. At least I think that was the contrast the author intended. The title is not explained until the very end. In between there are adults playing silly games, bros (?), women in a man's world, rehab facilities like none I've heard of before, technology, a right-wing cookout, and a Russian Orthodox funeral. It's a novel trying to say too much about too many things in our society.
Overall, this book gave me a headache, forcing me to massage my temples like some of its female characters do. Somehow, though, I feel that his author will get a good editor and have something more comprehensible to offer in her next effort. Thanks to NetGalley and Heresy Press for the ARC copy.
April 24, 2024
One's fiftieth birthday can trigger the beginning of awareness of a midlife crisis, as it does for Andy Sylvain, a successful, wealthy Manhattan investment banker, in The Hermit by Katerina Grishakova. It's a gradual unveiling for him, and the reader, as we follow his personal odyssey engaging people in his life and new ones, on a path of often reluctant enlightenment, of seeing how things truly are within and without, even discovering the need to see.
At the start, Andy is self-absorbed and not a sympathetic character. Neither are most his associates in his professional life with its pervading aura of arrogance. As he's pretty much reached the apex of his profession, his ambitions have been met, and he is in need of nothing in material terms. Thus, the reader is absolved from needing to pull for him to reach a tangible goal and can observe his spiritual growth in what could be considered a midlife coming-of-age.
True, his personal life is in a state of disarray, divorced with a college age daughter he doesn't see often, and a much younger girlfriend to whom he's often indifferent. But it's not at all chaotic. In fact, it's rather stable, as he is on amicable terms with his ex and in most relationships. The people around him generally like him with no turmoil seething underneath. Story-wise, they also tend to step aside to accommodate Andy's path. I'd have liked to have it disrupted, to have his actions caught and called out, especially by Lauren, his girlfriend.
Everything seems fully in control, if uninspired, in his professional life. Andy has earned a high position and become wealthy, allowing him the luxury of mixing business and pleasure, whether it's silly industry talent parties or expensive disposable hobbies. He's also acquired a level of superior wisdom bordering on smugness. He sees the rot in his industry and what can be done to fix it, and is ready to express his critical observations and flex his expertise, if asked.
Only he's stumped while sitting on a panel at an industry session by an absurd yet unfalsifiable scenario from a young newcomer. The encounter leaves a residue in the sense of where things are truly headed. That his knowledge is based on his terms, terms that might become invalid. That a time is coming when his value will shrink, when he becomes an anachronism. A point when the rot to be fixed is actually an opportunity for others.
This seed of awareness sprouts to affects him over the rest of the novel through subsequent personal and professional engagements. It can be challenging, sometimes frustrating, following Andy to his destiny and resolving the issues he wasn't aware of at the start, but there is a nice variety of well described locales and encounters that keep it interesting until the ending, which comes together satisfyingly.
The novel is well written and the editing is impeccable. It contains plenty of intelligent observations on the human condition in the new millennium, and particularly the financial world. A lot of jargon and industry shorthand too but, unless I missed something, that's more for atmosphere and can be skimmed.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
At the start, Andy is self-absorbed and not a sympathetic character. Neither are most his associates in his professional life with its pervading aura of arrogance. As he's pretty much reached the apex of his profession, his ambitions have been met, and he is in need of nothing in material terms. Thus, the reader is absolved from needing to pull for him to reach a tangible goal and can observe his spiritual growth in what could be considered a midlife coming-of-age.
True, his personal life is in a state of disarray, divorced with a college age daughter he doesn't see often, and a much younger girlfriend to whom he's often indifferent. But it's not at all chaotic. In fact, it's rather stable, as he is on amicable terms with his ex and in most relationships. The people around him generally like him with no turmoil seething underneath. Story-wise, they also tend to step aside to accommodate Andy's path. I'd have liked to have it disrupted, to have his actions caught and called out, especially by Lauren, his girlfriend.
Everything seems fully in control, if uninspired, in his professional life. Andy has earned a high position and become wealthy, allowing him the luxury of mixing business and pleasure, whether it's silly industry talent parties or expensive disposable hobbies. He's also acquired a level of superior wisdom bordering on smugness. He sees the rot in his industry and what can be done to fix it, and is ready to express his critical observations and flex his expertise, if asked.
Only he's stumped while sitting on a panel at an industry session by an absurd yet unfalsifiable scenario from a young newcomer. The encounter leaves a residue in the sense of where things are truly headed. That his knowledge is based on his terms, terms that might become invalid. That a time is coming when his value will shrink, when he becomes an anachronism. A point when the rot to be fixed is actually an opportunity for others.
This seed of awareness sprouts to affects him over the rest of the novel through subsequent personal and professional engagements. It can be challenging, sometimes frustrating, following Andy to his destiny and resolving the issues he wasn't aware of at the start, but there is a nice variety of well described locales and encounters that keep it interesting until the ending, which comes together satisfyingly.
The novel is well written and the editing is impeccable. It contains plenty of intelligent observations on the human condition in the new millennium, and particularly the financial world. A lot of jargon and industry shorthand too but, unless I missed something, that's more for atmosphere and can be skimmed.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
January 9, 2024
This novel is deceptively light on the surface and gut-punchingly heavy on the context. It is structured as a chronicle of disintegration, starting off at a high-end party at the Pierre Hotel, and ending (spoiler alert!) in a hut in the upstate New York woods. In the first pages we’re introduced to a debonaire, carefree life of a middle-aged bond trader, Andy Sylvain, who attends a lavish costume party for the Wall Street bigwigs. Andy is on top of his career, financially secure, with a younger girlfriend, a mansion in Westchester and a pied-a-terre in Manhattan. But as he celebrates his 50th birthday, a certain ennui, the kind that cannot even be defined, begins to plague him.
There’s an underlying uncertainty, in Andy’s mind, about who he is. On the one hand, he’s a Master of the Universe, a hotshot bond trader. He recoils in horror when his financially illiterate girlfriend casually calls him a ‘stockbroker.’ (There’s apparently a vast hierarchical difference between the two). On the other hand, he often deliberately misrepresents what he does for a living. On numerous occasions we see him describing himself as a financial advisor, an accountant, or a mortgage broker, especially when talking to laymen. Andy’s idea of self is broken: he, like many of his Wall Street buddies, is on top of the finance world, and he generally wants everyone to know this (one of his friends wishes that a Hollywood movie be made about people like them), but simultaneously he wants to be someone else, to be known as someone else. In his quiet moments we see him project different personalities onto himself: a movie director, a working-class man, a drifter-biker. Still, he doesn’t find any of those alternative life paths that he could’ve taken satisfying. This lack of ontological footing underpins his personality and is the main cause of his restlessness.
This is the central push-and-pull of the novel: Andy is a smart, situationally-attuned guy who could be using his talents in a different, more benign domain, but who is stuck in the crude world of finance. He would leave that world, if he knew how. Despite being a big swinging dick, he is not in control of his life. Up to the midpoint of the novel things happen to him, and it is only in later chapters that he is beginning to take charge. Taking charge comes at a cost; it means shedding the attributes of his coddled, privileged life, losing an important part of self. By the time he’s standing, facing the dark woods, the unknown, we know he’s ready for the transformation. It’s an astonishing narrative arc to pull off even for a seasoned writer, but I think Grishakova succeeded in this striking, through-provoking debut.
There’s an underlying uncertainty, in Andy’s mind, about who he is. On the one hand, he’s a Master of the Universe, a hotshot bond trader. He recoils in horror when his financially illiterate girlfriend casually calls him a ‘stockbroker.’ (There’s apparently a vast hierarchical difference between the two). On the other hand, he often deliberately misrepresents what he does for a living. On numerous occasions we see him describing himself as a financial advisor, an accountant, or a mortgage broker, especially when talking to laymen. Andy’s idea of self is broken: he, like many of his Wall Street buddies, is on top of the finance world, and he generally wants everyone to know this (one of his friends wishes that a Hollywood movie be made about people like them), but simultaneously he wants to be someone else, to be known as someone else. In his quiet moments we see him project different personalities onto himself: a movie director, a working-class man, a drifter-biker. Still, he doesn’t find any of those alternative life paths that he could’ve taken satisfying. This lack of ontological footing underpins his personality and is the main cause of his restlessness.
This is the central push-and-pull of the novel: Andy is a smart, situationally-attuned guy who could be using his talents in a different, more benign domain, but who is stuck in the crude world of finance. He would leave that world, if he knew how. Despite being a big swinging dick, he is not in control of his life. Up to the midpoint of the novel things happen to him, and it is only in later chapters that he is beginning to take charge. Taking charge comes at a cost; it means shedding the attributes of his coddled, privileged life, losing an important part of self. By the time he’s standing, facing the dark woods, the unknown, we know he’s ready for the transformation. It’s an astonishing narrative arc to pull off even for a seasoned writer, but I think Grishakova succeeded in this striking, through-provoking debut.
April 21, 2024
This book is difficult to review as there were some really good themes here but I'm not convinced on how they were delivered. I think overall, this story could have been made a lot more intriguing with a different title, so we didn't know where the plot was going to go from the beginning, and I felt the language/editing needed a bit more work in places. Also, I would have liked to have seen far more conversations with his daughter and younger people, as I feel the generational aspect to his issues would have made an interesting discussion / angle to what was happening.
It's an interesting, but not necessarily enjoyable book, which I'm glad to have read. Many thanks to NetGalley and Heresy Press for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
It's an interesting, but not necessarily enjoyable book, which I'm glad to have read. Many thanks to NetGalley and Heresy Press for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
May 31, 2025
The Hermit is the story of Wall Street bond trader, Andy, and the reexamination of his life that takes place upon turning fifty. Andy is the archetypical finance bro, a white male who has always played by the rules, rose to managing director in a prestigious investment bank, and built the kind of life that appears to be the American Dream. But we soon learn that he's become dissatisfied with his job (as upstarts are upending the old rules that he relies on to assess risks and returns), frustrated by his relationship with a fun-but-shallow woman who can't measure up to his brainy-but-inscrutable ex-wife, and desperate to find someone or something to restore meaning to his empty life. The writing has a depth and beauty that reminds me of Fitzgerald and Updike, and the female author does an earnest job portraying the kind of middle-aged male angst that's commonly ridiculed through works of satire nowadays or simply dismissed as "rich people problems." (I keep picturing Andy as actor Jon Hamm, who plays a similar character named Andy on the Apple TV series "Your Friends and Neighbors.")
Why do so many wealthy professionals keep grinding away at unfulfilling jobs like Andy's when they have more than enough money to retire and pursue their passions? I highly recommend you pick up this impressive debut novel and experience Andy's journey of self-discovery.
Why do so many wealthy professionals keep grinding away at unfulfilling jobs like Andy's when they have more than enough money to retire and pursue their passions? I highly recommend you pick up this impressive debut novel and experience Andy's journey of self-discovery.
May 30, 2024
This is a gutsy novel by a very talented writer with a philosophical bent. Grishakova is ambitious in the best of ways. I was not surprised to learn that Dostoyevsky is an influence. I reviewed The Hermit, along with the other three debut titles of Heresy Press, here: https://youtu.be/dg2ioasAIZk
My comments on The Hermit, my favorite of the four books, start at 7:20.
My comments on The Hermit, my favorite of the four books, start at 7:20.
January 25, 2024
Full transparency this was a ‘read now’ book on netgalley so I got it for free.
What a different novel. So many times I wondered to myself while reading this, is it trying to hard or is it quietly insightful? If I hadn’t been reading this on my kindle I would have been so annoyed with the word choices. This author did not waste a moment to demonstrate her large vocabulary but it also made the writing unique so I can respect that. There was also a lot of financial jargon that went way over my head though.
If you love unhinged, unreliable main characters that don’t think they are unhinged then this is the story for you. It that centers on the self proclaimed ‘masters of the universe’ finance bros and how you can have all the money in the world but cannot buy fulfillment.
What a different novel. So many times I wondered to myself while reading this, is it trying to hard or is it quietly insightful? If I hadn’t been reading this on my kindle I would have been so annoyed with the word choices. This author did not waste a moment to demonstrate her large vocabulary but it also made the writing unique so I can respect that. There was also a lot of financial jargon that went way over my head though.
If you love unhinged, unreliable main characters that don’t think they are unhinged then this is the story for you. It that centers on the self proclaimed ‘masters of the universe’ finance bros and how you can have all the money in the world but cannot buy fulfillment.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews