Whoops!
Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay
Published on 7. October 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-0-14-104571-9 (ISBN)
Description
John Lanchester's Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay is the unbelievable true story of the economic crisis.
We are, to use a technical economic term, screwed. The cowboy capitalists had a party with everyone's money and now we're all paying for it. What went wrong? And will we learn our lesson - or just carry on as before, like celebrating surviving a heart attack with a packet of Rothmans?
John Lanchester travels with a cast of characters - including reckless banksters, snoozing regulators, complacent politicians, predatory lenders, credit-drunk spendthrifts, and innocent bystanders to understand deeply and genuinely what is happening and why we feel the way we do.
'Devastatingly funny ... the route map to the crazed world of contemporary finance we have all been waiting for'
Will Self
'Bang on the money'
Independent
'Explains the crisis in a way that actually sticks ... to my amazement, I finally grasp it'
Janice Turner, The Times
'Endlessly witty ... will turn any reader into an expert within the space of 200 pages'
Jonathan Coe
'Terrific ... there is no better guide to the crazy world of high finance'
GQ
John Lanchester is a journalist, novelist and winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award. His fiction includes Mr Philips, The Debt to Pleasure and Capital. He is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books and the New Yorker, with a monthly column in Esquire.
We are, to use a technical economic term, screwed. The cowboy capitalists had a party with everyone's money and now we're all paying for it. What went wrong? And will we learn our lesson - or just carry on as before, like celebrating surviving a heart attack with a packet of Rothmans?
John Lanchester travels with a cast of characters - including reckless banksters, snoozing regulators, complacent politicians, predatory lenders, credit-drunk spendthrifts, and innocent bystanders to understand deeply and genuinely what is happening and why we feel the way we do.
'Devastatingly funny ... the route map to the crazed world of contemporary finance we have all been waiting for'
Will Self
'Bang on the money'
Independent
'Explains the crisis in a way that actually sticks ... to my amazement, I finally grasp it'
Janice Turner, The Times
'Endlessly witty ... will turn any reader into an expert within the space of 200 pages'
Jonathan Coe
'Terrific ... there is no better guide to the crazy world of high finance'
GQ
John Lanchester is a journalist, novelist and winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award. His fiction includes Mr Philips, The Debt to Pleasure and Capital. He is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books and the New Yorker, with a monthly column in Esquire.
Reviews / Votes
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 *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
196 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-14-104571-9 (9780141045719)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
01/2010
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€9.49
Available for download
Person
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.