-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Novel
by Justin Cartwright
In a world still uneasy after the financial turmoil of 2008, Justin Cartwright puts a human face on the dishonesties and misdeeds of the bankers who imperiled us. Tubal and Co. is a small, privately owned bank in England. As the company's longtime leader, Sir Harry Tubal, slips into senility, his son Julian takes over the reins - and not all is well. The company's hedge fund now owns innumerable toxic assets, and Julian fears what will happen when their real value is discovered.
Artair Macleod, an actor manager whose ex-wife, Fleur, was all but stolen by Sir Harry, discovers that his company's monthly grant has not been paid by Tubal. Getting no answers from Julian, he goes to the local press, and an eager young reporter begins asking questions. Bit by bit, the reporter discovers that the grant money is in fact a payoff from Fleur, written off by the bank as a charitable donation, and a scandal breaks. Julian's temperament and judgment prove a bad fit for the economic forces of the era, and the family business plunges into chaos as he tries to hide the losses and massage the balance sheet.
A story both cautionary and uncomfortably familiar, Other People's Money is not a polemic but a tale of morality and hubris, with the Tubal family ultimately left searching only for closure. Bold, humane, urbane, full of rich characters, and effortlessly convincing, this is a novel that reminds us who we are and how we got ourselves here.
"Cartwright is intent on compassionately portraying regular folks as well as those who operate the levers of power... but the overall chilly, deflated feeling does few favors for a book that intends to humanize grand contemporary ills." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Witty, thoughtful, briskly paced and entertaining - a terrific novel about excess, hubris, class and the age-old (usually one-sided) tussle between art and commerce." - Kirkus Reviews
"With wit and keen observation, Other People's Money is an entertaining, observant, and informative excursion into a distant world surprisingly close at hand." - Booklist
"As well as being funny and clever, this novel is also a handy idiot's guide to the financial crisis... This is a modest, gentle work of genius which creeps up on you." - The Guardian (UK)
"There is something to agree with and to admire on almost every page." - The Telegraph (UK)
This information about Other People's Money was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Justin Cartwright is the author of In Every Face I Meet, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Leading the Cheers, winner of the Whitbread; The Promise of Happiness, winner of the Hawthornden Prize; and White Lightning, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread. He was born in South Africa and now lives in London.
If you liked Other People's Money, try these:
by Emily St. John Mandel
Published 2021
From the award-winning author of Station Eleven , an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events - a massive Ponzi scheme collapse and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea.
by Elizabeth McKenzie
Published 2016
An exuberant, one-of-a-kind novel about love and family, war and nature, new money and old values by a brilliant New Yorker contributor
by Robert Boswell
Published 2014
In Tumbledown, Robert Boswell presents a large, unforgettable cast of characters who are all failing and succeeding in various degrees to make sense of our often-irrational world. In a moving narrative twist, he boldly reckons with the extent to which tragedy can be undone, the impossible accommodated.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
