I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay - Hardcover

Lanchester, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1439169845 ISBN 13: 9781439169841

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2010

Synopsis

John Lanchester's brilliant survey of the current financial crisis explains how the booming global economy collapsed seemingly overnight.

About this title

Review:

This is what George Bernard Shaw might have called An Intelligent Person's Guide to the Crisis of Modern Capitalism, and everyone ought to read it (Robert Harris, Sunday Times)

Original . . . beautifully written . . . both entertaining and profoundly anger-inducing (Chris Blackhurst, Evening Standard)

The route map to the crazed world of contemporary finance we have all been waiting for. John Lanchester's superb book is everything its subject - the 2008 crash - was not: namely lucid, beautifully contrived, comprehensible to the reader with no specialist knowledge - and most of all devastatingly funny (Will Self)

Wickedly funny . . . Good humor and good company will be the things that'll get us through (Dwight Garner, New York Times)

Endlessly witty, but the wit is underpinned by a tremendous, unembarrassed anger and moral lucidity. A superb guide which will turn any reader into an expert within the space of 200 pages. (Jonathan Coe)

Explains the madness of modern capitalism with razor-sharp insight, brilliant clarity and a refreshing dose of humour. A great book. (John O'Farrell)

Scarier than Thomas Harris (Nicci French)

John Lanchester's newfound mission: to explain the world of finance to the general public . . . The result is the perfect read for anyone still wondering what went wrong and why. Unless you'd rather they didn't know (Bloomberg)

Literary and profound . . . a master explainer with an excellent grasp of sophisticated finance (Christopher Caldwell, The Daily Beast)

Acidic, frightening, and sharply funny . . . a better book about the global meltdown than any other to date (EW.com)

About the Author:

John Lanchester is a journalist, novelist and winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award. He is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books and the New Yorker, with a monthly column in Esquire. John's piece on our love affair with the City, 'Cityphilia', generated much response on its publication in January 2008 and indeed predicted a worldwide crash based on the misuse of financial derivatives. In October 2008 he charted the crisis as it had developed over the year in 'Cityphobia', which also attracted much attention as a piece that explained not only what had happened, but how we felt about it. John was raised in South-East Asia and now lives in London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1439169845
• ISBN 13: 9781439169841
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 260