The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund

The year is 2006, the apex of excess. Married to the founder of Comet Capital, Holly Talbott is slowly becoming a reluctant Mrs. Hedgefund. Sure, it’s great to live in a world that is seemingly sheltered from the threat of economic collapse and the risk of having to downsize from new Roger Viviers to consignment Manolos. Holly loves being a stay-at-home mom to her son, Miles, keeping house accounts at all the best places in town, and having a Rolodex of eager donors for her fund-raisers for the local hospital, but there are some downsides to this world of excess and secluded luxury. For starters, there are endless black tie functions where the hedgie men vie to show up their competition with bids at charity auctions on matzoh ball soup cooked by Rachael Ray ($675,000) and fifteen minutes with Warren Buffett ($700,000). Holly and her sister-in-law, Kiki, joke that lunches are called luncheons because they take eons, that even BOTOX can’t stop their mother-in-law’s withering stares, and that their husbands are away so often it almost feels like they are single again.

When an adventure with Kiki to trendy Williamsburg leads to a shocking discovery, Holly soon learns that not all of her husband’s trips have been for business. Forced to choose between compromising her integrity and living honestly, Holly begins to navigate a new New York existence. And while being a divorcée may make her a pariah to the other moms on the Upper East Side, below Fifty-seventh Street there is a world of new career and dating prospects to explore. Holly soon finds that sometimes exes have all the fun, and in the most unexpected places. . . .

Publishers Weekly

In the gilded age of a few months ago, hedge fund managers were "the kings of ka-ching." Of course, now they're not, and there's a sparky frisson to Momzilla author Kargman's lively chronicle of a queen of ka-ching who ditches her hedge fund manager hubby. Hedge-fund wife Holly Talbott, 34, has forgone Botox and boob jobs and considers herself "more J. Crew than J. Mendel." She also thinks she has a happy marriage despite her ferocious mother-in-law and the cattiness of keeping up with the yummy mummies of her son's schoolmates. But once she and best friend Kiki discover her husband's cheating ways, the knives come out: among other things, the tough pre-nup makes divorcing the ultra-rich hedgie trickier than she expects. Dating isn't much easier, but readers will know to hold out for the glowing happy ever after. Effervescent Holly's romp through wealthy Manhattan is a gleeful little bonbon. (Apr.)

Jill Kargman is the author of The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund and Momzillas, and the coauthor of the New York Times bestsellers Wolves in Chic Clothing and The Right Address. She lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with her family.