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. I urge you to read it. Will Self Explains the madness of modern capitalism with razor-sharp insight, brilliant clarity and a refreshing dose of humour. A great book. John O'Farrell 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 Scarier than Thomas Harris Nicci French Original ... beautifully written ... both entertaining and profoundly anger-inducing Chris Blackhurst, Evening Standard 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 Wickedly funny ... Good humor and good company will be the things that'll get us through Dwight Garner, New York Times 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 [A] sober message lurking among Lanchester's delightful wordplay, and it deserves attention by everyone who cares to understand where we are, how we got here and who is responsible John Lawrence Reynolds, Globe and Mail This is a piece of genius ... It tells a proper story, like a novel, and we're all part of it - which means it is *gripping*. Yes! Gripping! A book about money! I know! But it's true. It is necessary, particularly - but not exclusively - if you're somebody who thinks, 'Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Iceland, um, mortgages, er...' and doesn't want to keep thinking it until the end of time, amoeba-stylee. I humbly posit that it is a masterpiece India Knight 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 Lanchester has turned that fascination - coupled with a kind of astonished anger - into a lucid, conversational account of the crisis designed for non-financial types and helpfully leavened with jokes, swearing and interesting asides Quentin Webb, Reuters An excellent book for anyone wondering what the hell is going on. Triple A, as the credit rating agencies might say Irish Times Or you could simply borrow the book from someone. If they've read it, even better n they won't be expecting you to return it The Telegraph Unashamedly a book for beginners; an informed outsider's explanation of a series of extraordinary events The Times John Lanchester's Whoops! is a book that made my head spin ... I must have read 30 books on the global economic crisis (I'm writing one myself) and this is the best. No question William Leith, The Observer To make the financial sector more responsible, more people must understand what went wrong. As far as the literate British layman or woman is concerned ... the process starts with reading this book Andrew Martin, The Telegraph A devastating and 'devastatingly funny' analysis of the credit crunch and the subsequent global financial meltdown London Review of Books A valiant and genuinely amusing attempt to describe how finance came off the rails ... written with a good heart and a lively intellectual curiosity Stephen Foley, Independent He starts with the observable and then scapes away to discover the truth Paul Myners, FT We'll be living with the banking crisis for decades and devouring plenty more books about it too. But few, if any, will prove as pleasurable - and by that I mean as literate or as wickedly funny - as John Lanchester's latest book The Scotsman A remarkable book ... in elegant phrases and witty analogies, [Lanchester] explains the crisis to the economically dyslexic in a way that actually sticks ... I finally grasp stuff such as leverage, credit default swaps, derivatives and am angry with my ditsy former self who dismissed these as the domain of the boring City types you get lumbered with at parties. -- Janice Turner Times

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.