Ugly Americans

Description

From the author of the bestseller Bringing Down the House, another extraordinary real-life thriller, a true story of money, risk and life lived close to the edge, set in the Wild East of 1990s Japan. John Malcolm is barely 30, a high school football hero and Princeton graduate, he controls a hedge fund worth USD50m. He made his millions back in the early '90's, a time when dozens of elite young American graduates made their fortunes in hedge funds in the Far East, beating the Japanese at their own game, riding the crashing waves of the Asian markets and winning. Failure meant not only bankruptcy and disgrace a la Nick Leeson, but potentially even death - at the hands of the Japanese Yakuza. Ugly Americans tells Malcolm's story, and that of others like him, in a cross between Mezrich's own best-selling Bringing Down the House and Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker.

Ben Mezrich is the New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House in addition to many other books, both fiction and non-fiction. The major motion picture 21, starring Kevin Spacey, was based on Bringing Down the House. The Oscar-winning film The Social Network was adapted from The Accidental Billionaires. Mezrich lives in Boston with his wife and son.

The author of the compelling Bringing Down the House ... returns with another vivid true story ... Any movie shouldn't lack for colour * GQ * When the movie rights to a novel are snapped up by Hollywood A-lister Kevin Spacey, you know its something special. And Ugly Americans most definitely is ... An incredible true story ... it's impossible not to be amazed and absorbed into this parallel universe where East meets West, gangsters meet cowboys and everyone is just an earthquake away from disaster * Scottish Daily Record * The propulsive narrative fairly roars "guilty pleasure." Yet Ugly Americans is revelatory, a rush that leaves the reader reeling but reflective * Philadelphia Inquirer * [Contains] all the ingredients of a great narrative - a main character the reader can relate to, an appealing love interest, money, danger, the need for acceptance, suspense ... In a truly engaging look at how an innocent who thinks he knows the world does actually end up understanding a small but significant piece of it, Mezrich manages to incorporate solid journalism into a narrative that just plain works * Publisher's Weekly * A high-octane passion play pitting a young man's ambition against his sense of humanity * Oregonian *