Inside the rising tech microcosms of Seoul, Singapore, Japan, and India, far from the mendacity of Silicon Valley, a serial tech entrepreneur pursues a last-ditch attempt to build something great: COMPASS, an open-source network platform that Microsoft has labeled “reckless”. At stake are his reputation, his dwindling bank account, and his 15-year relationship with the only woman he’s ever loved - a woman in the midst of reckoning with who she is and what really matters to her in the face of the narcissism and destructiveness of the technology world. She shows up in Seoul in a big, bold move to be with him - only to find that living in Asia reshapes her in intangible, unexpected ways.

Taut and richly layered, Riding High in April is a powerful evocation of our contemporary tech moment, a revealing exploration of resilience and the pursuit of something unattainable, and a moving story of love, friendship, and letting go.

“When a man moves to Asia to fulfill his dreams of creating the ultimate open-source network platform, the woman he loves follows him, only to realize her life is entirely different on the other side of the world. Both a love story and an examination of the tech industry, Riding High in April by Jackie Townsend is a remarkable tale of the cost of innovation.” (PopSugar)

“Timely, supremely relevant, and a great read.” (Dan Lyons, New York Times best-selling author of Disrupted: My Misadventures in the Start-Up Bubble)

“Townsend vividly depicts the singular cultural ethos of the tech world that peculiar combination of microscopically diligent engineering and dreamy aspiration and deftly dissects its global variations.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Riding High in April captures that sense of riding the tech razor’s edge, of an aspirational yearning where the constant chase for success never quite satisfies. Realistic, authentic, and thought-provoking.” (Lainey Cameron number one Amazon best seller and award-winning author of The Exit Strategy)