The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

This author is apparently well known for her novels that take scenarios from the front page of the news, crises that brew in real life, and imagines the stories and the people who lie immediately behind, the people who perpetrate such crimes. In this case it is not a pandemic (ironically, she has already done that one), but rather the financial crisis. He lead character is a cross between Bernie Madoff and an international man of mystery sort. The high roller who fooled everyone who gets caught and dies in prison. The book probes into the man himself and the people who are wrapped up with him by association, if not actually benefitting excessively but more by association. then there are the victims of the crime, the people who chased the dream of staggering profits without work, who then lost it all. It is a tale of greed, some of it naked and out in the open, some of it propelled by wanting something that sounds unbelievable to be true, but once again, it is too good to be true. The people in these stories are starkly drawn and intensely interesting, which is the magic of the author herself as a storyteller. She is also almost too good to be true. I read this because it is on Obama's 2020 reading list, but I would seek out other books by this author.