Beautiful and Doomed is a novel about the couple Anthony and Gloria Patch, wasting their lives in New York in anticipation of a huge inheritance. Dinners in expensive restaurants, endless parties with friends and luxurious receptions - it would seem, what else can you dream of? But when the chances of getting rich become illusory, the brilliant couple has to face the cruel reality: you have to pay for everything - sometimes an unaffordable price... “This Side of Paradise” is a manifesto of American youth of the “Jazz Age”. All young people are the same. They are confident that a bright future awaits them and that the whole world belongs to them. The ambitious Emory Blaine thought so too - until he went through the harsh school of the First World War. His story is the fate of an entire generation for which “all gods died, all wars died down, all faith was undermined.” Now, after many losses, a string of failures and bitter disappointments, he greedily wants only one thing - to have fun and enjoy every moment. But what is the true value of life “this side of heaven”?