Destiny and Other Follies, by Gregory Venters

Aging cancer survivor and consultant Calder Brandt has staked everything on making partner. But a bullying boss sees him as a threat, while the firm’s feckless Leadership looks the other way. When his partner bid fails, Calder spirals into desperation and despair.

How will he tell his wife?

Younger and Bosnian, Hana feels adrift in an overwhelming America. Terrified by her husband’s failing health and the prospect of widowhood, she takes a retail bank job and an interest in her one friend’s husband.

Meanwhile, Calder’s client work unravels; hints at internal sabotage mount. As the ruthlessness of colleagues emerges, so do the primal forces that drive him. His battle to salvage both dignity and career deteriorates into a thirst for vengeance, leading to unexpected revelations about his past, his world, and himself.

Destiny and Other Follies is a darkly comic, gritty yet humane portrait of misdirected lives in our corporatized era.