Wednesday, April 7 at 7:30pm
Michael Lewis discusses his new book, The Big Short
Writers on a New England Stage presents the author of Liar’s Poker,
Moneyball, and The Blind Side
Tickets go on sale to Music Hall and NHPR members
Friday, February 5 at noon
and to the public Friday, February 12 at noon
Vouchers for autographed books also on sale
– 10% discount when purchased in advance
Writers on New England Stage, the celebrated author series presented by The Music Hall and New Hampshire Public Radio in collaboration with Yankee Magazine and RiverRun Bookstore, announced that journalist and author Michael Lewis will take the stage on Wednesday, April 7. The author of the scathing Wall Street expose Liar’s Poker as well as other investigative nonfiction books, Moneyball (about baseball), The Blind Side (about football), and The New New Thing (about Silicon Valley); Lewis will present his new book, THE BIG SHORT: Inside the Doomsday Machine.
In this new book, Lewis gives a character-rich and darkly humorous account of how the U.S. economy “was driven over the cliff” by a collection of professionals entrenched in the financial world. Following a brief author presentation, Lewis will be interviewed by New Hampshire Public Radio reporter Jon Greenberg, once a Washington reporter at National Public Radio and now Executive Editor of NHPR. Live music will be performed by the award-winning house band Dreadnaught. The live show will be rebroadcast on New Hampshire Public Radio.
“Among journalists, Michael Lewis is top notch. Those who’ve read his work know his humor is deeply perceptive and his insights into people and business are truly illuminating,” said Writers on a New England Stage Associate Producer Margaret Talcott. “He’s a wonderful addition to the spring roster for the series which, until now, has focused on fiction and women authors, including Jodi Picoult on March 31 and Isabel Allende on May 5. Like so many of writers in the series, he’s a fixture on the New York Times bestseller list, sitting at #1 now with the paperback edition of The Blind Side, also a top-selling movie.” she added.
About THE BIG SHORT: Inside the Doomsday Machine
Just as Lewis’ past books Moneyball and The Blind Side gave us insight into the business of baseball and football; THE BIG SHORT exposes the world of high finance – and financial collapse. In the words of Lewis’ publisher W.W. Norton, “Who better than the author of the signature bestseller Liar’s Poker to explain how the event we were told was impossible—the free-fall of the American economy—finally occurred; how the things that we all wanted, like ridiculously easy money and greatly expanded home-ownership, were vehicles for that crash; how shareholder demand for profit forced investment executives to eat the forbidden fruit of toxic derivatives.
There are surprisingly few villains in this tale and fewer heroes, but an awful lot of people look very, very silly: high government officials, including the watchdogs; the heads of major investment banks (some overlap here with previous category); perhaps even the face in your mirror. In this trenchant, raucous, irresistible narrative, Michael Lewis writes of the goats and of the few who saw what the emperor was wearing, and gives them, most memorably, what they deserve. He proves yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our times.