A razor-sharp and deeply felt novel that illuminates the
pivotal role of work in our lives—a riveting fusion of The
Nest, Up in the Air, and Then We Came to the End that
captures the emotional complexities of five HR colleagues
trying to balance ambition, hope, and fear as their small
company is buffeted by economic forces that threaten to
upend them.
Rosa Guerrero beat the odds as she rose to the top of the
corporate world. An attractive woman of a certain age, the
longtime chief of human resources at Ellery Consumer
Research is still a formidable presence, even if her most
vital days are behind her. A leader who wields power with
grace and discretion, she has earned the devotion and
loyalty of her staff. No one admires Rosa more than her
doting lieutenant Leo Smalls, a benefits vice president
whose whole world is Ellery.
While Rosa is consumed with trying to address the needs of
her staff within the ever-constricting limits of the
company’s bottom line, her associate director, Rob Hirsch,
a middle-aged, happily married father of two, finds
himself drawing closer to his "work wife," Lucy Bender, an
enterprising single woman searching for something—a
romance, a promotion—to fill the vacuum in her personal
life. For Kenny Verville, a senior manager with an MBA,
Ellery is a temporary stepping-stone to bigger and better
places—that is, if his high-powered wife has her way.
Compelling, flawed, and heartbreakingly human, these men
and women scheme, fall in and out of love, and nurture
dreams big and small. As their individual circumstances
shift, one thing remains constant—Rosa, the sun around
whom they all orbit. When her world begins to crumble, the
implications for everyone are profound, and Leo, Rob,
Lucy, and Kenny find themselves changed in ways beyond
their reckoning.
Jillian Medoff explores the inner workings of an American
company in all its brilliant, insane, comforting, and
terrifying glory. Authentic, razor-sharp, and achingly
funny, This Could Hurt is a novel about work, loneliness,
love, and loyalty; about sudden reversals and unexpected
windfalls; a novel about life.
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