Diary of a Very Bad Year - by Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager & N+1 & Keith Gessen (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"Diary of a Very Bad Year is a rarity: a book on modern finance that's both extraordinarily thoughtful and enormously entertaining."

-- James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds

"A great read. . . . HFM offers a brilliant financial professional's view of the economic situation in real time, from September 2007, when problems in financial markets began to surface, until late summer 2009."

-- Booklist

"n+1 is the rightful heir to Partisan Review and the New York Review of Books. It is rigorous, curious and provocative."

-- Malcolm Gladwell

A profoundly candid and captivating account of the economic crisis and subprime mortgage collapse, from an anonymous hedge fund manager, as told to the editors of New York literary magazine n+1.

From the Back Cover

The First Book from n+1--an Essential Chronicle of Our Financial Crisis

HFM: Where are you going to buy protection on the U.S. government's credit? I mean, if the U.S. defaults, what bank is going to be able to make good on that contract? Who are you going to buy that contract from, the Martians?

n+1: When does this begin to feel like less of a cyclical thing, like the weather, and more of a permanent, end-of-the-world kind of thing?

HFM: When you see me selling apples out on the street, that's when you should go stock up on guns and ammunition.

Review Quotes

"My favorite book written about the financial crisis. . . . Highly recommended." -- Ezra Klein, The Washington Post

"Diary of a Very Bad Year is a rarity: a book on modern finance that's both extraordinarily thoughtful and enormously entertaining." -- James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds

"A highly readable refresher on the financial crisis. . . . Amazingly--and largely because of the anonymity he's granted--the nameless hedgie gives straight answers. . . . While HFM comes off as a bro you don't want to mess with, the book is packed with plenty of humor." -- The Wall Street Journal

"Eminently readable. . . . Always engaging. . . . Although it is not fiction, Diary of a Very Bad Year is, in its own way, an attempt to bridge the gulf between the literary and financial worlds." -- Financial Times

"Diary of a Very Bad Year does something few of the books written about the crisis have accomplished: It delivers an insider perspective on the events in real time, rather than dwelling on conclusions reached after the fact." -- BusinessWeek

"HFM does a good job of teaching the reader how mortgage-backed paper, money-market funds, and credit-default swaps work, while offering up juicier tidbits about the ethics and legalities of his sector." -- Time Out New York

"Diary of a Very Bad Year takes the first steps toward putting a human face on the funds." -- Newsweek

"A great read. . . . HFM offers a brilliant financial professional's view of the economic situation in real time, from September 2007, when problems in financial markets began to surface, until late summer 2009." -- Booklist

"A wonderful book. Diary of a Very Bad Year is a fascinating commentary on the crisis and a great read." -- David Backus, Professor of Economics and Finance, NYU's Stern School of Business

"Thoughtful, funny and unpretentious. . . . An unexpected treat that belongs on the shelf once labeled belles-lettres. . . . It is plenty enjoyable to watch HFM's mind unfurl." -- Dwight Garner, The New York Times

"A short, illuminating set of interviews with one savvy, articulate Wall Streeter. . . . A penetrating, educational and at times harrowing play-by-play." -- Time magazine

"n+1 (in the person of Keith Gessen) lends an outsider's ear to the brilliant disquisitions of a guy caught in the middle of it all. . . . Excellent reading. . . . Compelling." -- The Millions