'Sometimes you do not truly observe something until you study it in reverse,' writes Karim Issar upon arrival to New York City from Qatar in 1999. Fluent in numbers, logic, and business jargon, yet often baffled by human connection, the young financial wizard soon creates a computer program named 'K[...]

When Whiting Writers' Award winner Teddy Wayne published his critically acclaimed debut, "Kapitoil," it was hailed as "one of the best novels of this] generation" by the "Boston Globe" and was shortlisted for a spate of national prizes.Jonathan Franzen wrote in "The Daily Beast" that "no other writ[...]