At Ecco, Denise Oswald acquired Alissa Quart’s Bootstrapped for six figures. The North American rights agreement was brokered by Jill Grinberg at Jill Grinberg Literary Management. She said the book follows up on Squeezed, Quart’s 2018 book from Ecco. Grinberg added that while interviewing people for that book, Quart “realized there was an underlying ideology of bootstrapping independence at the root of the middle class suffering.” The new book, the agent continued, “will look at how this deeply ingrained ideal of American self-reliance and do-it-yourself grit has helped to both mask and perpetuate the wealth gap in this country, and what we can do to address it.” Quart, who contributes regularly to the New York Times and other outlets, cofounded the Economic Hardship Reporting Project with Nickel and Dimed author Barbara Ehrenreich.

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