Ugly Americans
  • Published: 1 September 2005
  • ISBN: 9780099455059
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $50.00

Ugly Americans

Formats & editions
EBook
31 Dec 2011
Paperback
1 Sep 2005
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Another extraordinary real-life thriller from the author of the bestselling book and inspiration for the film 21, Bringing Down the House. Ugly Americans is a true story of money, greed and risk set in the Wild East of 1990s Japan.

The true story of the Ivy League hedge fund cowboys who gambled with the dangerously high stakes of the Asian stock market.

John Malcolm, high school football hero and Princeton graduate made his millions back in the early '90s, a time when dozens of elite young American graduates made their fortunes in hedge funds in the Far East, beating the Japanese at their own game, riding the crashing waves of the Asian stock markets, gambling at impossibly high stakes and winning. Failure meant not only bankruptcy and disgrace à la Nick Leeson, but potentially even death - at the hands of the Japanese Yakuza: one of the world's most notoriously violent organised crime syndicates.

Ugly Americans tells Malcolm's story, and that of others like him, in a high octane book, filled with glamour, money and the dangers these incur, this true story is a cross between Mezrich's own best-selling Bringing Down the House and Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker.
  • Published: 1 September 2005
  • ISBN: 9780099455059
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $50.00
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About the author

Ben Mezrich

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.

portrait photo of Ben Mezrich

Also by Ben Mezrich

Breaking Vegas
Straight Flush
Once Upon a Time in Russia
The Accidental Billionaires
Sex on the Moon
21: Bringing Down the House
Bringing Down The House
See all

Praise for Ugly Americans

A high-octane passion play pitting a young man's ambition against his sense of humanity

Oregonian

[Contains] all the ingredients of a great narrative - a main character the reader can relate to, an appealing love interest, money, danger, the need for acceptance, suspense ... In a truly engaging look at how an innocent who thinks he knows the world does actually end up understanding a small but significant piece of it, Mezrich manages to incorporate solid journalism into a narrative that just plain works

Publisher’s Weekly

The propulsive narrative fairly roars "guilty pleasure." Yet Ugly Americans is revelatory, a rush that leaves the reader reeling but reflective

Philadelphia Inquirer

When the movie rights to a novel are snapped up by Hollywood A-lister Kevin Spacey, you know its something special. And Ugly Americans most definitely is ... An incredible true story ... it's impossible not to be amazed and absorbed into this parallel universe where East meets West, gangsters meet cowboys and everyone is just an earthquake away from disaster

Scottish Daily Record

The author of the compelling Bringing Down the House ... returns with another vivid true story ... Any movie shouldn't lack for colour

GQ