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The Audacity
A bracing satire about the implosion of a Theranos-like company, a collapsing marriage, and a billionaires’ “philanthropy summit,” for fans of Hari Kunzru and The White Lotus.
In 72 hours, a blockbuster exposé will reveal Victoria Stevens’s multibillion-dollar startup as a massive fraud. And Victoria has gone missing. Has she faked her death, leaving her husband, Guy Sarvananthan, to face the fallout— and potential jail time? Should Guy flee to his native Sri Lanka, an outcast and a failure? Or embrace denial? Opting for the latter, he takes the corporate jet to a private Caribbean island, where the 0.0001% have gathered to decide which one of the world’s biggest problems to “eradicate forever.” Guy drinks and drugs his way into oblivion, through manicured jungles and aboard superyachts, amid captains of industry, legions of staff, and unlikely saboteurs.
Meanwhile, Victoria narrates her side of the story from an off-the-grid location in the California desert. In scribbled diary entries shot through with cultish self-help mantras, she plots her comeback, confident she’ll prove everyone wrong. Again.
In 72 hours, a blockbuster exposé will reveal Victoria Stevens’s multibillion-dollar startup as a massive fraud. And Victoria has gone missing. Has she faked her death, leaving her husband, Guy Sarvananthan, to face the fallout— and potential jail time? Should Guy flee to his native Sri Lanka, an outcast and a failure? Or embrace denial? Opting for the latter, he takes the corporate jet to a private Caribbean island, where the 0.0001% have gathered to decide which one of the world’s biggest problems to “eradicate forever.” Guy drinks and drugs his way into oblivion, through manicured jungles and aboard superyachts, amid captains of industry, legions of staff, and unlikely saboteurs.
Meanwhile, Victoria narrates her side of the story from an off-the-grid location in the California desert. In scribbled diary entries shot through with cultish self-help mantras, she plots her comeback, confident she’ll prove everyone wrong. Again.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 2, 2024
49 people are currently reading
1002 people want to read
About the author
Ryan Chapman
6 books286 followersRyan Chapman is a Sri Lankan-American writer from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who currently lives in Kingston, New York.
His debut novel "Riots I Have Known" (Simon & Schuster, 2019) was longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and named a best book of the year by Electric Literature and The Marshall Project. His second novel "The Audacity" will be published by Soho Press in April.
His criticism and humor pieces have appeared in Bookforum, The New Yorker, The Guardian, McSweeney's, The Los Angeles Times, BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, Frieze, and elsewhere. He’s received fellowships from Millay Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the James Merrill House, and currently teaches at Vassar College and the Sewanee School of Letters.
He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and a contributing editor at BOMB.
His debut novel "Riots I Have Known" (Simon & Schuster, 2019) was longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and named a best book of the year by Electric Literature and The Marshall Project. His second novel "The Audacity" will be published by Soho Press in April.
His criticism and humor pieces have appeared in Bookforum, The New Yorker, The Guardian, McSweeney's, The Los Angeles Times, BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, Frieze, and elsewhere. He’s received fellowships from Millay Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the James Merrill House, and currently teaches at Vassar College and the Sewanee School of Letters.
He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and a contributing editor at BOMB.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
May 21, 2024
This is a book that surprised me when it showed up on my library holds shelf. This isn't uncommon for me--I'll often read a review of an upcoming book, think it sounds interesting, request it, and then forget about it until it shows up. Then I have to squint at it and remember why I wanted it in in the first place. I think in this case I must have read something that compared Victoria's company to Theranos and that got me interested in the scam angle. UNFORTUNATELY much like Sucker, I was led astray. Authors please stop luring me in by saying you're writing about an Elizabeth Holmes-standin and then actually writing about ineffectual men in the orbit of Elizabeth Holmes. I don't care about them!! Get me in the head of the scam queen!! (To be fair this book kind of tries to do that but Victoria's POV is maybe 25% of the book compared to Guy's.)
It's marketed as a "satire" but like....is it??
The language reminds me a little bit of David Foster Wallace (who I DO LIKE) but it seems to lack the heart of DFW which is like the main point of DFW. IDK. IDK. Bleh. I did finish the whole thing though, mostly bc it's pretty short and also I guess I maintained some optimism that it might turn the ship around and focus more on the aspects that I thought were more interesting. But alas it never did.
It's marketed as a "satire" but like....is it??
The language reminds me a little bit of David Foster Wallace (who I DO LIKE) but it seems to lack the heart of DFW which is like the main point of DFW. IDK. IDK. Bleh. I did finish the whole thing though, mostly bc it's pretty short and also I guess I maintained some optimism that it might turn the ship around and focus more on the aspects that I thought were more interesting. But alas it never did.
May 8, 2024
Many thanks to Edelweiss and SoHo Press for an advanced reader’s copy.
This book wasn't my cup of anything (not tea, not coffee, not gin,). It seems to steal from the story of Elizabeth Holmes and her company, Theranos, but that ends up being a small portion, rather the bulk of the book observes her husband as he tries to continue with life as usual.
The reviews that I have read laud it as a humorous look at business - a satire. I, obviously didn't see it.
It made me cringe too many times.
This book wasn't my cup of anything (not tea, not coffee, not gin,). It seems to steal from the story of Elizabeth Holmes and her company, Theranos, but that ends up being a small portion, rather the bulk of the book observes her husband as he tries to continue with life as usual.
The reviews that I have read laud it as a humorous look at business - a satire. I, obviously didn't see it.
It made me cringe too many times.
April 24, 2024
I haven't finished it yet but God do I hate this book. The main character spends his time avoiding reality and feeling sorry for himself while his wife is also hiding away from the consequences of her actions while looking at everybody else with contempt. The dialogues with the rich dudes on the island suck the air out of the room. Maybe that's the point of the book. Anyway I'm too far along now, I have to finish it, can't wait to move to something else.
August 29, 2024
Video review https://youtu.be/RwqoxR303Ns
December 3, 2024
I wasn’t blown away by this book, but I certainly think it wasn’t as bad as a lot of the flack I’ve seen people give it. The author has a very robust vocabulary, and I can tell he knows a thing or two. Though thankfully his word choice wasn’t in a snob fashion, more of just careful consideration to the author’s imagery. I also learned a few new words with is always nice in the spirit of self education. I know the book is considered a satire piece, which I’m not sure if I would agree with. Maybe I naturalized the ridiculous scenes in the book, or maybe just took too much of it to heart when I wasn’t supposed to, but the satirical element felt secondary to a primary element that wasn’t entirely obvious. That might be an odd thing to state, but maybe that’s where the book is lacking. The book has an identity in making fun of the weird habits of the 1%, but it misses a sense of a stronger purpose than that.
That all said, I enjoyed my time reading the story. I often found it lightly amusing, the vocabulary and imagery were often well put, and the reading was pretty easy and entertaining. Perhaps it’s just a weird time to read a satire when much of the world seems pretty grave and solemn right now, though I can easily see the reverse point being made.
That all said, I enjoyed my time reading the story. I often found it lightly amusing, the vocabulary and imagery were often well put, and the reading was pretty easy and entertaining. Perhaps it’s just a weird time to read a satire when much of the world seems pretty grave and solemn right now, though I can easily see the reverse point being made.
December 16, 2024
Ryan Chapman sets a high bar for himself. One, we live in tough times for satirists. We're a nation that just elected a felon, and we watched multiple billionaires fall over themselves to kiss the ring. Satires about billionaires saying and doing ridiculously offensive things have stiff competition with the offensive things actual billionaires and politicians are saying and doing.
Two, funny is difficult — especially in novels. Stand-up comedians have it easy with their one-liners or well-crafted paragraphs with zingers. Sustaining that over hundreds of pages is really tough.
Given reality then, The Audacity, which is roughly based or inspired by the Theranos biotech fraud case, fails to rise to satire, and it isn't that funny. The author creates some over-the-top scenes that could be humorous, but the main emotion I felt was annoyance. The main character is a hapless whiner at the beginning of the book and — spoiler alert — remains a hapless whiner at the end.
Two, funny is difficult — especially in novels. Stand-up comedians have it easy with their one-liners or well-crafted paragraphs with zingers. Sustaining that over hundreds of pages is really tough.
Given reality then, The Audacity, which is roughly based or inspired by the Theranos biotech fraud case, fails to rise to satire, and it isn't that funny. The author creates some over-the-top scenes that could be humorous, but the main emotion I felt was annoyance. The main character is a hapless whiner at the beginning of the book and — spoiler alert — remains a hapless whiner at the end.
August 10, 2024
The audacity of this book to call itself literature.
There was just nothing and nobody that I could like, connect with, be fascinated by, wonder about, learn from.
A passive fellow, married to a high-achiever who fancies that she can forcefully bring about a cure for cancer through sheer will powering (Elizabeth Holmes, anyone?), is shocked, shocked to wake up one day to discover that their billions in wealth was just a house of cards, collapsing now.
She’s faked a suicide and is hiding out in the desert trying to make a plan materialize for saving her ideas (and wealth).
He’s gone off to a satire of a billionaires’ retreat, where they are all trying to decide on one single very important world problem to throw their money at, while being waited on hand and foot by teal-jumpsuited good looking service people.
She’s running herself into the ground, literally.
He’s drinking and drugging himself into oblivion.
Who thought this was clever and funny? It wasn’t.
There was just nothing and nobody that I could like, connect with, be fascinated by, wonder about, learn from.
A passive fellow, married to a high-achiever who fancies that she can forcefully bring about a cure for cancer through sheer will powering (Elizabeth Holmes, anyone?), is shocked, shocked to wake up one day to discover that their billions in wealth was just a house of cards, collapsing now.
She’s faked a suicide and is hiding out in the desert trying to make a plan materialize for saving her ideas (and wealth).
He’s gone off to a satire of a billionaires’ retreat, where they are all trying to decide on one single very important world problem to throw their money at, while being waited on hand and foot by teal-jumpsuited good looking service people.
She’s running herself into the ground, literally.
He’s drinking and drugging himself into oblivion.
Who thought this was clever and funny? It wasn’t.
November 12, 2024
the idea feels like it could’ve been interesting but it’s actually just the main character drinking himself into oblivion, which is pretty boring to read about. Felt like it was almost satire but not quite there. Meh..
October 29, 2023
Pure genius.
October 12, 2025
Leave a comment below if you’d like to meet in The Zone of Utmost Throb. IYKYK
August 15, 2024
I read the e-book which (again) is not listed here.
This was such a sorry read.
An ineffectual would-be composer is married (at her suggestion, her rules) to a woman who then proceeds to build a corporation and charity for the eradication of cancer and they become part of the 1%.
Theranos type shenanigans ensue, she decides, without telling him, to disappear and fake her death and when she's reported missing he knows what she's done.
He goes to a big conference in her place where the other 1%ers are deciding how they can save the world, but to their advantage. He decides maybe he'll commit suicide. Or go back and teach piano in Philly.
She's working on her running technique and scheming her comeback.
That's about the end. Absolutely no resolution of anything. Right where I think the real story should start.
The characters are all pretty disgusting but banal. The kind of bland self-congratulatory denial of their own humanity and the humanness of the rest of the world that we see far too much of in the news these days.
This book wasn't funny, or smart, or intelligent or interesting. Total waste of time.
This was such a sorry read.
An ineffectual would-be composer is married (at her suggestion, her rules) to a woman who then proceeds to build a corporation and charity for the eradication of cancer and they become part of the 1%.
Theranos type shenanigans ensue, she decides, without telling him, to disappear and fake her death and when she's reported missing he knows what she's done.
He goes to a big conference in her place where the other 1%ers are deciding how they can save the world, but to their advantage. He decides maybe he'll commit suicide. Or go back and teach piano in Philly.
She's working on her running technique and scheming her comeback.
That's about the end. Absolutely no resolution of anything. Right where I think the real story should start.
The characters are all pretty disgusting but banal. The kind of bland self-congratulatory denial of their own humanity and the humanness of the rest of the world that we see far too much of in the news these days.
This book wasn't funny, or smart, or intelligent or interesting. Total waste of time.
December 24, 2024
The cast of characters in Guy’s parts of the book include out of touch billionaires, self-important data nerds whose analysis paralysis plays as a means to show off how smart they are, determinists, frauds, and the occasional optimist whose optimism only serves to feed the lies they tell themselves - a suitable playground for top shelf satire. He plays these sections well, occasionally threading the needle and revealing themes that ring true. Separately, mostly, is Victoria’s sections - blunt, stilted, singularly focused on something that seemed to me, unattainable. Brilliant, vacant, and distanced, her “levers of personhood” are set in a confusing configuration. I enjoyed my time with these characters, found some of the satire sufficiently biting, and also found the author’s style accessible even if he sent me to the dictionary on a couple of occasions. Recommended reading for those who like heady stuff and don’t mind low key unlikable leads.
February 23, 2025
THE AUDACITY by Ryan Campbell is about a Theranos-type company/ Elizabeth Holmes founder at the moment when her fraud is about to be exposed. She goes missing and leaves her innocent-ish husband, Guy Sarvananthan, behind.
Most of the book follows Guy's time at a weekend island retreat with fellow rich philanthropists who are trying to pick an issue to collectively solve with their billions and where Guy is trying to numb everything. It's brilliant satire, with lines like this throughout: "Climate change is out of scope. We're only limiting ourselves to the problems we can solve with our resources. Anything that involves the public sector is a nonstarter. Might as well flush our money down the toilet."
Everybody is basically terrible but also not? And it feels like a look behind the curtain of how power and money works, even if it's satire but also is it really that satirical?!
Most of the book follows Guy's time at a weekend island retreat with fellow rich philanthropists who are trying to pick an issue to collectively solve with their billions and where Guy is trying to numb everything. It's brilliant satire, with lines like this throughout: "Climate change is out of scope. We're only limiting ourselves to the problems we can solve with our resources. Anything that involves the public sector is a nonstarter. Might as well flush our money down the toilet."
Everybody is basically terrible but also not? And it feels like a look behind the curtain of how power and money works, even if it's satire but also is it really that satirical?!
June 22, 2024
This read put me in a slump. Though a few lines stuck out to me, the book felt oversaturated; trying too hard to convey something we already knew (whether atmosphere, satire, etc.). Since the protagonist was quite passive, even large and what were meant to be impactful events did not succeed in making me feel like anything was truly happening throughout the novel. Admittedly, I didn't try too hard to understand the plot, but I wish the author had dug deeper into the uncomfortable places (convenient marriage, Guy's shifting perceptions of people, death) to balance the story's sarcasm in every other aspect. The end, as did the rest of the book, left me meandering, a flatness up to and over the horizon.
May 22, 2024
This novel is on the shorter side but took a bit of concentration to subsume. A Saturday on the wealthy 1% and their corporations, mergers, land deals, narcissism, misogyny utter lack of empathy for anyone below their percent. Ryan captures corporate culture beautifully…the zoom calls, the upper management bullshit, the lies and cover-ups, and the buzz words. V and Guy, marriage of convenience, startup company turned large conglomerate on the verge of curing cancer when V disappears. Suicide? Kayak accident? On purpose? The fallout on Guy as he wrestles with his part in the coverup and fate.
July 31, 2025
I was sold for the first 100 pages or so- it was funny to watch the worst people in the world be exactly as facile as I have always imagined them, but the joke started to get old, and I didn't feel like the book had much to say beyond just looking into the aquarium of the impossibly wealthy and disconnected, and I can only watch an aquarium for so long before I get bored.
The ending felt like the author got bored of writing the book (which is fair, I was also bored by that point) and turned in the draft as it stood.
I'll be interested to see how this one goes over at book club. I may not have been a big fan of the book, but I expect the conversation to be a trip!
The ending felt like the author got bored of writing the book (which is fair, I was also bored by that point) and turned in the draft as it stood.
I'll be interested to see how this one goes over at book club. I may not have been a big fan of the book, but I expect the conversation to be a trip!
May 4, 2024
What a tasty treat! I love a biting satire, and this doesn’t disappoint. What goes on behind the scenes when people have Too Much Money? If you’ve ever thought, “Those guys must be delusional,” you’ll laugh your head off at the ridiculous joy of this novel. I read Ryan Chapman’s first novel, “Riots I Have Known,” and he has a real skill with the unreliable narrator genre. All the reviews I’ve read compare the events of “The Audacity,” to the debacle of Elizabeth Holmes at Theranos. This isn’t what happened but, when you finish the novel, you’ll wish it had.
November 30, 2024
For me at least, this ended up being an oddly toothless satire of late, late capitalism and the world's ultra-rich. I really liked Chapman's previous novel, Riots I Have Known, and this one started out with some very funny one liners. But as it went on I became less invested and more bored. Still, Chapman is obviously talented and so I'll be interested in whatever he writes next.
September 9, 2025
2.5 stars
I found this book forgettable. The characters were not well developed; I liked our protagonist, Guy, but pretty much everyone else at the Quorum were interchangeable, and I wish we got more from Victoria's perspective, and more flashbacks exploring her company and relationship with Guy. I think the satire of the Quorum (a bunch of billionaires on a private island brainstorming how to save the world) could have been much stronger. The writing was hard to get into, and I never really felt compelled to pick up the book. Ultimately, a disappointment.
I found this book forgettable. The characters were not well developed; I liked our protagonist, Guy, but pretty much everyone else at the Quorum were interchangeable, and I wish we got more from Victoria's perspective, and more flashbacks exploring her company and relationship with Guy. I think the satire of the Quorum (a bunch of billionaires on a private island brainstorming how to save the world) could have been much stronger. The writing was hard to get into, and I never really felt compelled to pick up the book. Ultimately, a disappointment.
July 9, 2024
I don't know that I know what to make of this. I didn't hate it- but I didn't love it. I did read it until the end and I did find the whole thing weirdly fascinating, perverse, disturbing, wrong, and interesting as hell. It was a car wreck of an expensive car that was really a jalopy underneath.
Also it felt incredibly meta and off the rails.
But all in all I have determined this is my year to read weird shit and this was pretty damn weird.
Also it felt incredibly meta and off the rails.
But all in all I have determined this is my year to read weird shit and this was pretty damn weird.
April 20, 2024
Sharp satire skewers the ultra-rich, as an Elizabeth Holmes-type woman escapes the media blitz when her fraud is exposed, leaving her husband to weather the storm (figuratively & literally) at a pretentious retreat.
My review & a sample of the audio:
https://bookbybook.blogspot.com/2024/...
My review & a sample of the audio:
https://bookbybook.blogspot.com/2024/...
April 28, 2024
Chapman satirizes Guy's billionaire lifestyle for outrageous comic effect. I rarely dogear a precious hardcover, but check out page 263. Why Guy has come to matter to the reader is brought home here. Thank you to the author for brilliantly, hilariously locking the Devil in the room of Guy’s life, showing me why, making me care.
Did not finish
May 11, 2024I always like the *idea* of satire like this but the execution doesn’t always come through. There were references I didn’t understand, which always frustrates me. I also thought the random SAT words were annoying which is interesting because I very recently defended the use of big words in Ways and Means. Here the words felt random amidst an otherwise simple writing style and voice, I think.
June 1, 2024
I think that this is an author that I could really love, but this just wasn't the story for me.
I just felt like I was at a party that COULD be fun if only I wasn't constantly getting dragged away from interesting conversations by that drunk friend who wants to cry in the bathroom and rehash their latest fight with their deadbeat boyfriend all night.
I just felt like I was at a party that COULD be fun if only I wasn't constantly getting dragged away from interesting conversations by that drunk friend who wants to cry in the bathroom and rehash their latest fight with their deadbeat boyfriend all night.
June 10, 2024
Satire is a tricky and difficult thing, and satire of the 1% sets an even higher bar due to the low hanging fruit element. Parts of this (the adventures of the spiraling husband) are very funny and somewhat absorbing. But the segments (mercifully shorter) concerning the mogul wife are pretty insufferable and ring a bit hollow.
Did not finish
March 17, 2024The premise of this book is very intriguing, a Theranos-like story. I could not get into this book. I’m certain others will like it but I did not find it accessible.
Many thanks to NetGalley and SoHo Press for an advanced reader’s copy.
Many thanks to NetGalley and SoHo Press for an advanced reader’s copy.
April 15, 2024
Honestly this book was so boring. I wanted more of manic V and did not care about guy. Like there was so much room for great comedic writing here but the author themselves just isn’t well written to give this more than a 1 star. I give the star to V the only icon - you go girl
September 5, 2024
When I first finished this book, I gave it a one start, but then once I sat, and absorbed what I had just read, I decided to give it three stars. It was odd and weird and I didn’t get it at first but now I understand. It really was weird and kinda funny.
Read
April 4, 2025DNF at 50%. This is why I don’t watch Succession. I don’t need more fuel for my fire to hate these people. But I suppose it’s an insight into how our culture rewards sociopathy and how humans will chase fantasy at any cost.
May 15, 2025
2.75 it was okay! Not great not bad just fine & somewhat entertaining… should’ve had an ending. Wish victoria wasn’t involved at all she was boring. Felt kinda like a Gary Shteyngart knock off. I will say I learned a lot of new vocab words which is always nice!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews