John Lanchester

Hailed by the New York Times as an ''elegant and wonderfully witty writer,'' John Lanchester received the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Betty Trask Prize for his critically acclaimed debut, The Debt to Pleasure. In Capital, it's 2008, the height of the financial crisis, and someone is sending anonymous postcards to the affluent residents of Pepys Road, London. The cards read simply, ''We want what you have,'' leaving the recipients asking, Who's...

Discusses how the world of finance and economics really works, from the terms and conditions of personal checking accounts to the deliberate concealments of bankers, and explains hundreds of common economic terms.

The wildest story in the world these days is not fiction; it's what's really happening all around us as the world's global economy has gone into freefall. How did we get here? What does it all mean? How could so many smart people be so dumb and believe their own hype?Accessibly, cleverly, and with mordant humor, journalist John Lanchester trots the globe in search of the answers to these questions-to Iceland, the scene of catastrophic bank collapse;...

Mr. phillips wakes on a summer's Monday morning in his modest, nearly mortgage-free house, in the bed he has contentedly shared with his wife of almost thirty years, ready to face another ordinary working day.---Except that this day is not ordinary, for the previous Friday, Mr. Phillips was summarily sacked.

The story is about the interconnected lives of a diverse group of characters linked to a neighborhood street. One day, the street's residents all receive an anonymous postcard through their front doors bearing a simple message: "We want what you have." Who is behind the anonymous hate campaign? And what do they want? As the mystery of the postcards deepens, interweaving stories reveal lives filled with love and loss, fear and greed, fortune and envy,...