Overview

“Theranos but make it gay.” —Electric Literature Best friends (and occasional lovers) Ezra and Orson are teetering on top of the world after founding a company that promises instant enlightenment in this “propulsive, cheeky, eat-the-rich page-turner” (The Washington Post) about scams, schemes, and the absurdity of the American Dream. At seventeen, Ezra Green doesn’t have a lot going on for him: he’s shorter than average, snaggle-toothed, internet-addicted, and halfway to being legally blind. He’s also on his way to Last Chance Camp, the final stop before juvie. But Ezra’s summer at Last Chance turns life-changing when he meets Orson, brilliant and Adonis-like with a mind for hustling. Together, the two embark upon what promises to be a fruitful career of scam artistry. But things start to spin wildly out of control when they try to pull off their biggest scam yet—Nulife, a corporation that promises its consumers a lifetime of bliss. “Propulsive” (The New York Times Book Review) and “laugh-out-loud funny” (BuzzFeed), with the suspense of The Talented Mr. Ripley, the decadence of The Great Gatsby, and the wit of Succession, Confidence is a story for anyone who knows that the American Dream is just another pyramid scheme.

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9781982189747

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Reviews

“Theranos but make it gay. In this Ripley-esque romp, two men—occasional lovers—create a fake empire based entirely on their own charisma and an impossibly auspicious wellness product that promises bliss to those who use it.”—Electric Literature “Frumkin follows up his critically acclaimed debut The Comedown with Confidence, a biting satire about a pair of friends who start a company that promises consumers instant enlightenment for the rest of their lives…. Over the course of the novel, as their hustles become increasingly complex, they veer closer and closer to a massive collapse from which they may never recover.”—New York Magazine’s Vulture

One of the Washington Post’s 50 Best Works of Fiction of 2023 - A New York Times Editors' Choice Pick - One of them’s best books of 2023 - One of CrimeReads' Best Crime Novels of 2023 “Two boys meet at a camp for troubled kids who need to turn their lives around—it’s not the slammer, but it’s the last stop before it—and they start a scheme that indeed changes everything. Is it love? Is it lust? It’s a good time, that’s for sure.” –People “Theranos but make it gay. In this Ripley-esque romp, two men—occasional lovers—create a fake empire based entirely on their own charisma and an impossibly auspicious wellness product that promises bliss to those who use it.”—Electric Literature “Frumkin follows up his critically acclaimed debut The Comedown with Confidence, a biting satire about a pair of friends who start a company that promises consumers instant enlightenment for the rest of their lives…. Over the course of the novel, as their hustles become increasingly complex, they veer closer and closer to a massive collapse from which they may never recover.”—New York Magazine’s Vulture

Author Information

Rafael Frumkin is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Medill School of Journalism. His first novel, The Comedown, was published by Henry Holt in 2018, and his second novel, Confidence, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2023. He lives with his partner, two cats, and one dog in Carbondale, Illinois, where he is an assistant professor of creative writing at Southern Illinois University.

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