This debut novel by a young book editor about twenty-somethings, and published by a relatively new imprint, would seem to embody its title, THE FUTURES. Ironically, the book is set back in the New York of 2008, when the country was on the cusp of the financial collapse, and it was anybody’s guess what the future would bring. It tells the story of Julia and Evan, two Yale students who move in together after graduation and whose lives in New York --- seemingly so full of promise --- each fall apart professionally and, away from each other, personally, over the course of that first year.

"Even if the time shifts can be occasionally confusing, the reader remains firmly engaged in the stories, rooting for (or despairing of) first Julia and then Eric, as each gets a turn to rationalize bad behavior."

Both characters are privileged by their educations, but Julia also comes from an affluent, connected family, which is how she gets her first job working for The Fletcher Foundation.  She’s miserable there and privy to secrets she has no interest in, even though they will eventually affect her. Evan comes from a small town in Canada and gets his job at Spire, a hot hedge fund, in part because of his nationality, though how that factors in isn’t immediately clear. What is evident early on is that nothing is as it seems at both the family-run Foundation and at Spire, where top management plans to buck the market by making a killing on one canny investment.

Anna Pitoniak has set herself the task of weaving the story of this year from both Julia and Evan’s point of view, so the reader sees something that happens from one narrator’s perspective and then doubles back in time to see how the other narrator’s version differs. Several incidents are referred to long after the occurrence, but as their explanations come belatedly, the reader wonders at times if a reference had been missed.

Even if the time shifts can be occasionally confusing, the reader remains firmly engaged in the stories, rooting for (or despairing of) first Julia and then Eric, as each gets a turn to rationalize bad behavior. That’s because the two stories --- Evan’s all-consuming job and questionable decisions, and Julia’s disillusionment with both her job and her relationship --- reach a denouement that’s satisfyingly cataclysmic and, in some ways, catastrophic for each, followed by a deftly satisfying resolution.

As THE FUTURES unfolds, readers will no doubt have moments of exasperation with both narrators. But in the end, Pitoniak seems to be saying, each had to make his and her own mistakes. That’s the cost of having “your whole future ahead of you.”