the portable veblen by elizabeth mckenzie

'A deeply observed universe where heroines are named for economists and the high stakes of capitalism are set to collide with the chatter of small wild animals. Le Guin, author of The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness) ' The Portable Veblen is the squirreliest novel I ever read. Every page is a delight.' (Emma Jane Unsworth, author of Animals)

Razor-sharp, intimate, hilarious and profound. 'Man oh man, do I love this book! Audacious, imaginative, and totally wonderful: The whole books zips and zings.' (Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves) His recent work on a device to minimise battlefield trauma has led him dangerously close to the seductive Cloris Hutmacher, heiress to a pharmaceuticals empire, who is promising him fame and fortune through a shady-sounding deal with the department of defence. Meet her fiancé, Paul: the son of good hippies who were bad parents, a no-nonsense, high-flying neuroscientist with no time for squirrels.

She's an experienced cheerer-upper (mainly of her narcissistic, hypochondriac, controlling mother), an amateur translator of Norwegian and a firm believer in the distinct possibility that the plucky grey squirrel following her around can understand more than it lets on. Meet Veblen: a passionate defender of the anticonsumerist views of her namesake, the iconoclastic economist Thorstein Veblen. A riotously funny and deeply insightful adventure through capitalism, the medical industry, family, love, war and wedding planning - from an electrically entertaining new voice.

The portable veblen by elizabeth mckenzie