--- description: Find out why "The Vegan" by Andrew Lipstein is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. title: 'The Vegan' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta783b617e144a6f6/698a420286f68e531b6f2f17/TheVegan.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 14, 2023 # The Vegan by Andrew Lipstein by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Andrew Lipstein’s second novel is at once bracingly contemporary and deeply strange. Poised at the intersection of tech, finance, ethics, and a natural world in crisis, it follows a hedge fund manager named Herschel Caine who is about to render the rest of Wall Street obsolete thanks to an infallible algorithm. The plan goes awry in the horrifying aftermath of a small act of interpersonal sabotage on Herschel’s part, causing our narrator to compulsively purify himself through overidentification with animals, late-night rambles to the zoo, and, yes, the adoption of a vegan lifestyle that wreaks havoc on his power lunches. Propelled by Herschel’s _American Psycho_ meets moral philosophy internal monologue—and a biting sense of humor—_The Vegan_ channels the queasy paranoia of an era when the fear of [human extinction via machine learning](https://time.com/6295879/ai-pause-is-humanitys-best-bet-for-preventing-extinction/ "undefined") can make even masters of the universe feel like trapped animals. —_Judy Berman_ **Buy Now**: _The Vegan_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780374606589 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/45Y8KvC "undefined") The Vegan: 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6331310/the-vegan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6331310/the-vegan/"},"headline":"The Vegan","datePublished":"2023-11-14T12:30:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:25:02.965Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6331310/the-vegan/","keywords":["Books","list","best books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta783b617e144a6f6/698a420286f68e531b6f2f17/TheVegan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta783b617e144a6f6/698a420286f68e531b6f2f17/TheVegan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6331310/the-vegan/","name":"The Vegan"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2023","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WppeqCEz/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-11-13T19:20:52.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WppeqCEz.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6331310/the-vegan/","duration":"PT1M28S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6331310/the-vegan/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```