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    Impostor Syndrome: A Novel
    Impostor Syndrome: A Novel
    Impostor Syndrome: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    Impostor Syndrome: A Novel

    Written by Kathy Wang

    Narrated by Lauren Fortgang

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    About this audiobook

    A sharp and prescient novel about women in the workplace, the power of Big Tech, and the looming threat of foreign espionage from Kathy Wang, “a skilled satirist of the northern California dream” (Harper’s Bazaar)

    In 2006 Julia Lerner is living in Moscow, a recent university graduate in computer science, when she’s recruited by Russia’s largest intelligence agency. By 2018 she’s in Silicon Valley as COO of Tangerine, one of America’s most famous technology companies. In between her executive management (make offers to promising startups, crush them and copy their features if they refuse); self promotion (check out her latest op-ed in the WSJ, on Work/Life Balance 2.0); and work in gender equality (transfer the most annoying females from her team), she funnels intelligence back to the motherland. But now Russia's asking for more, and Julia’s getting nervous.

    Alice Lu is a first generation Chinese American whose parents are delighted she’s working at Tangerine (such a successful company!). Too bad she’s slogging away in the lower echelons, recently dumped, and now sharing her expensive two-bedroom apartment with her cousin Cheri, a perennial “founder’s girlfriend”. One afternoon, while performing a server check, Alice discovers some unusual activity, and now she’s burdened with two powerful but distressing suspicions: Tangerine’s privacy settings aren’t as rigorous as the company claims they are, and the person abusing this loophole might be Julia Lerner herself. 

    The closer Alice gets to Julia, the more Julia questions her own loyalties. Russia may have placed her in the Valley, but she's the one who built her career; isn’t she entitled to protect the lifestyle she’s earned? Part page-turning cat-and-mouse chase, part sharp and hilarious satire, Impostor Syndrome is a shrewdly-observed examination of women in tech, Silicon Valley hubris, and the rarely fulfilled but ever-attractive promise of the American Dream.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMay 25, 2021
    ISBN9780063093188
    Author

    Kathy Wang

    Kathy Wang grew up in Northern California and holds degrees from UC Berkeley and Harvard Business School. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two children.

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    Reviews for Impostor Syndrome

    4/5

    73 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      An enjoyable thriller, well read. Not sure how realistic some of the parts about Russia were but for the sake of entertainment it was a good read.
    • 4/5
      This book was a fascinating read. Really a character study and social commentary on social media and ethics. Easy to follow and the ending was satisfying enough. I might do a deeper dive into this story as it was well crafted.
    • 5/5
      Its been a while since I experienced a book with such great balance of all the components needed for a great escape. The female characters have so much depth and contrast in their story line and I'm refreshed that enough background context was given to grow the readers attachment to the character without deviating from the story arch. Also from beginning to end the author never falters and creates a seamless narrative with climaxes being spaced out in such fashion that made me think that the author could also be mathematician using metrics in her writing to create the perfect timing to keep readers fully engaged. The writer shows a bias favoring US government and giving a romanticized view of our lives here in contrast with the lives of someone who was not "fortunate" to be born in a democratic state. It worked for me since I'm an immigrant and live by these values. Great read and highly recommend
    • 5/5
      Can’t wait for the sequel!! Really enjoyed this book. Thank you