Workhorse - by Caroline Palmer (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Fierce, funny and unflinching."--Coco Mellors, New York Times bestselling author of Blue Sisters

A richly drawn, unsettling, and wickedly funny story of envy and ambition set against the glamor and privilege of media and high society in New York City at its height.

At the turn of the millennium, Editorial Assistant Clodagh "Clo" Harmon wants nothing more than to rise through the ranks at the world's most prestigious fashion magazine. There's just one problem: she doesn't have the right pedigree. Instead, Clo is a "workhorse" surrounded by beautiful, wealthy, impossibly well-connected "show horses" who get ahead without effort, including her beguiling cubicle-mate, Davis Lawrence, the daughter of a beloved but fading Broadway actress. Harry Wood, Davis's boarding school classmate and a reporter with visions of his own media empire, might be Clo's ally in gaming the system--or he might be the only thing standing between Clo and her rightful place at the top.

In a career punctuated by moments of high absurdity, sudden windfalls, and devastating reversals of fortune, Clo wades across boundaries, taking ever greater and more dangerous risks to become the important person she wants to be within the confines of a world where female ambition remains cloaked. But who really is Clo underneath all the borrowed designer clothes and studied manners--and who are we if we share her desires?

Hilariously observant and insightful, Workhorse is a brilliant page-turner about what it means to be in thrall to wealth, beauty, and influence, and the outrageous sacrifices women must make for the sake of success.

Review Quotes

"A fierce, funny, and unflinching examination of ambition, class, and the quiet indignities of being underestimated. You certainly don't need to have worked in fashion to appreciate Palmer's razor-sharp and deliciously wry observations about the industry--but as someone who did, I both adored and applaud her honesty." --Coco Mellors, New York Times bestselling author of Blue Sisters

"Workhorse is a sly, fun, and astutely observed novel about what happens when one young woman's ambition runs amok. Caroline Palmer transports you to the world of glossy magazines in the early 2000s, back when the going was good--the expense accounts, the parties, the fashion--while weaving in a suspenseful story about an assistant who will do anything in her power to move up on the masthead. It was propulsive, surprising, and fun. I ate it up." --Emma Rosenblum, bestselling author of Mean Moms and Bad Summer People

"A fast-paced and funny examination of ambition and its consequence"--The New York Times

"Palmer's expertly observed tale dissects the haves and have nots who populate a brutal world, and leaves readers wondering just what they'd do if they had Clo's ability--and her opportunity to get ahead." --Town & Country Magazine

"Former fashion editor Palmer renders Clo's world in vivid, gritty detail alongside sharp commentary on class, ambition, and women's roles in the publishing industry."--Booklist

"Palmer has a talent for wit, and Clo's observations on the foibles of the fashion industry are razor-sharp."
--The Guardian

"For a novel to convincingly and all at once evoke Brideshead Revisted, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Six Degrees of Separation, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and yes, The Great Gatsby (as well, somehow, as The Sorrows of Young Werther) is several feats--of storytelling panache, of plot architecture, of thematic cohesion, and of provocative inquiry into the human heart. This thrilling, page turning, and deeply absorbing novel is an anthropological treatise on a lost New York at just slightly past the peak of American capitalism--fin de siecle indulgence shackled to an anxious expense account. A love letter to and post-mortem of the magazine industry, Workhorse beautifully captures not just the medieval and arcane pressure on women to achieve distinction amidst male control of the levers of power, but also the ever-widening gap between the soaring masters of the universe and their strained, human buttresses. The tensions between personal lives and career aspirations spring vividly to life here, as women find their ways professionally at great personal cost, trying to retain core values in a world that operates under a ruthless, Darwinian logic. Emerging from the constant testing of the narrator's mettle is an ode to friendship and an argument for self-knowledge as the greatest power of all." --Matthew Thomas, New York Times-bestselling author of We Are Not Ourselves

"The walls have ears--and eyes and a steel-trap memory. Vogue veteran Caroline Palmer has concocted a heady brew of nostalgia and melancholia in Workhorse, resurrecting a magazine yesterworld of prima donnas, petty cash drawers, and petty grievances. Giddyap!" --Lauren Mechling, author of How Could She and coauthor of The Memo

"This book! The best thing I've read this year by far. It's Prep meets The Devil Wears Prada meets The Goldfinch. Funny, tender, but with so many thrillingly dark moments. I've been telling everyone I know about it. Everyone is going to be absolutely obsessed with Clo and her brutal world as she tries to fold herself to become the 'right' kind of girl. OBSESSED." --Heather Darwent, author of The Things We Do to our Friends

"There are shades of Slaves of New York and The Devil Wears Prada in this deep, deep dive into the fashion abyss of Noughties New York. 'Work horse' Clo is an exceptional creation, aching with ambition and forensically attentive to the hierarchies she must conquer to make her mark. An absolute treat of a book, I was obsessed." Louise Candlish, Sunday Times bestselling author of Our House

About the Author

From 2014 to 2019, Caroline Palmer was the director of editorial, video, and social media at Amazon Fashion. Prior to her tenure at Amazon, she spent seven years as the editor of Vogue.com. Her work has appeared in various publications, including The New York Times, Life, Seventeen magazine, and Vogue. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband and three children. Workhorse is her first novel.