The Accidental Billionaires: Sex, Money, Betrayal and the Founding of Facebook

Description

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE OSCAR-WINNING MOVIE, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, this is the fast-paced story of two Ivy-League outcasts who concocted a scheme to meet girls, and ended up inventing Facebook The New York Times bestseller and inspiration for the Oscar-winning movie, The Social Network Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg - an awkward maths prodigy and a painfully shy computer genius - were never going to fit in at elite, polished Harvard. Yet that all changed when master-hacker Mark crashed the university's entire computer system by creating a rateable database of female students. Narrowly escaping expulsion, the two misfits refocused the site into something less controversial - 'The Facebook' - and watched as it spread like wildfire across campuses around the country, and their popularity exploded in the process. Yet amidst the dizzying levels of cash and glamour, as Silicon Valley, venture capitalists and reams of girls beckoned, the first cracks in their friendship started to appear. And what began as a simple argument spiralled into an out-and-out war. As Facebook rose to stratospheric heights by bringing people together - its very success tore two best friends apart.

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.

"PURE SUMMER FUN... JUICY, FAST-PACED, UNPUTDOWNABLE... Ben has a gift for finding high-energy, strange-but-true tales and [SOCIAL NETWORK] is no exception... a captivating story of betrayal, vast amounts of cash, and two friends who revolutionized the way humans connect to one another." KEVIN SPACEY "You'll be utterly enthralled" News of the World "Even if you've never logged on to Facebook, the premise behind this true story is irresistible... A 21st century fable, it unfolds with all the narrative verve of a novel" Daily Mail "As addictive as Facebook... has the perfect dramatic narrative for a Hollywood thriller." Time Out **** "Bringing Down the House showed geeks outsmarting the casinos. Mezrich's latest focuses on two Harvard students who tried to build an online database of girls...and created Facebook" GQ