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Private Equity
Bloomsbury presents Private Equity written and read by Carrie Sun.
A TIME MUST-READ FOR 2024
‘A moving story of how easily a life can be submerged by work, and what it takes to regain one's soul’
Oliver Burkeman, bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks
What are you willing to sacrifice to get to the top? What might it take to leave it all behind?
Carrie Sun can’t shake the feeling that she’s wasting her life. At twenty-nine, she’s left her job, dropped out of an MBA program and is trapped in an unhappy engagement. So when she gets the opportunity to work at one of the most prestigious hedge funds in the world – as the sole assistant to the firm’s billionaire founder – she can’t say no.
But playing the game at the highest levels comes at a cost. Amid the ultimate winners in our winner-takes-all economy, Carrie soon finds her identity swallowed whole, struggling for balance in a world of of efficiency and excess, status and aspiration, power and fortune.
‘A penetrating but all the more necessary critique of extreme wealth and toxic work culture as [Sun] questions what it really means to waste one’s life’ Oprah Daily, The Most Anticipated Books of 2024
A TIME MUST-READ FOR 2024
‘A moving story of how easily a life can be submerged by work, and what it takes to regain one's soul’
Oliver Burkeman, bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks
What are you willing to sacrifice to get to the top? What might it take to leave it all behind?
Carrie Sun can’t shake the feeling that she’s wasting her life. At twenty-nine, she’s left her job, dropped out of an MBA program and is trapped in an unhappy engagement. So when she gets the opportunity to work at one of the most prestigious hedge funds in the world – as the sole assistant to the firm’s billionaire founder – she can’t say no.
But playing the game at the highest levels comes at a cost. Amid the ultimate winners in our winner-takes-all economy, Carrie soon finds her identity swallowed whole, struggling for balance in a world of of efficiency and excess, status and aspiration, power and fortune.
‘A penetrating but all the more necessary critique of extreme wealth and toxic work culture as [Sun] questions what it really means to waste one’s life’ Oprah Daily, The Most Anticipated Books of 2024
Audible Audio
Published February 29, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 23, 2025
'For all those who have the courage to quit'
I read this book in awe of Carrie. Carrie, who wanted to write but gets swept up by a boss, a job, expectations. She becomes a 'success', and in the process she loses everything she is.
The bigger your career gets, the smaller your life gets. I am not sure there is such a thing as having both in parallel. How can it be, in this world where we have such finite time?
I was in awe of Carrie because her choices make no sense, and yet I understand completely- as someone adrift on a similar ship.
'People worked like machines', and isn't it wonderful for the employer? Isn't it easy, sat there working people to the bone and cutting the profits. But who's to say you'll ever see them- enjoy them? Is your money worth much in that wallet- or watch- or car? Did you see anything of life beyond your desktop, the four walls and ceiling of your office building?
So Carrie yearns to go, but she stays. The paradox is immense and yet it unfolds in the houses of many Brits, Americans-all the Western World that calls itself free and remains yoked by capitalism. I recently watched a video essay asking the important question- is there a dream job within capitalism? If productivity is the goal, can the producer ever be happy?
All I know is that I felt myself in this book, reading it on the journey to work, recognising myself in the pages- in the pace, the rush, the feeling that your life is going, it's happening now but you don't have the time to pay attention. The sky has a pink hue to it, the sea has a salty taste to it, but you will never know. You never saw it- just think how many moments we have lost staring at screens, doing menial tasks.
The best investors are masters of psychology: they buy up your mental real estate before you realise it’s for sale.
It is your time, your energy, your dedication, that they take first. If you are tired when you go home- what is it to them? What do they care you have no energy for your kids, parents or partner? If you can drive the momentum at work it isn't their problem that your personal life is a sinking ship.
As my uncle said, they found a new Pope in two days- you think you're irreplaceable?
PS: I could have told you at the start- there's no such thing as an ethical billionaire.
I read this book in awe of Carrie. Carrie, who wanted to write but gets swept up by a boss, a job, expectations. She becomes a 'success', and in the process she loses everything she is.
The bigger your career gets, the smaller your life gets. I am not sure there is such a thing as having both in parallel. How can it be, in this world where we have such finite time?
I was in awe of Carrie because her choices make no sense, and yet I understand completely- as someone adrift on a similar ship.
'People worked like machines', and isn't it wonderful for the employer? Isn't it easy, sat there working people to the bone and cutting the profits. But who's to say you'll ever see them- enjoy them? Is your money worth much in that wallet- or watch- or car? Did you see anything of life beyond your desktop, the four walls and ceiling of your office building?
So Carrie yearns to go, but she stays. The paradox is immense and yet it unfolds in the houses of many Brits, Americans-all the Western World that calls itself free and remains yoked by capitalism. I recently watched a video essay asking the important question- is there a dream job within capitalism? If productivity is the goal, can the producer ever be happy?
All I know is that I felt myself in this book, reading it on the journey to work, recognising myself in the pages- in the pace, the rush, the feeling that your life is going, it's happening now but you don't have the time to pay attention. The sky has a pink hue to it, the sea has a salty taste to it, but you will never know. You never saw it- just think how many moments we have lost staring at screens, doing menial tasks.
The best investors are masters of psychology: they buy up your mental real estate before you realise it’s for sale.
It is your time, your energy, your dedication, that they take first. If you are tired when you go home- what is it to them? What do they care you have no energy for your kids, parents or partner? If you can drive the momentum at work it isn't their problem that your personal life is a sinking ship.
As my uncle said, they found a new Pope in two days- you think you're irreplaceable?
PS: I could have told you at the start- there's no such thing as an ethical billionaire.
November 25, 2025
Dnf. Didn’t hold my interest
January 7, 2026
Started well with a really interesting beginning, but then lost my interest quickly. Also misleading title as she worked at a hedge fund, not a private equity fund?
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews