The Rise and Fall of Great Powers - Hardcover

Ingenious... Mr. Rachman needs only a few well-drawn characters to fill a large canvas and an impressive swath of history. * New York Times * Memorable for its melancholy warmth and its almost Dickensian sentimentality. * The Sunday Times * Even with all the flights of fancy and exotic locales, the characters in it are beautifully human . . . After his much acclaimed 2010 debut, The Imperfectionists, Rachman uses this follow-up to prove he's a writer to watch. * avclub.com * The Imperfectionists is a splendid original, filled with wit and structured so ingeniously that figuring out where the author is headed is half the reader's fun. * Janet Maslin, New York Times * A bookshop-lover's book, and beautiful prose-lover's book, and read-it-all-in-one-weekend book. * The New Republic * Rachman follows his best-selling debut (The Imperfectionists, 2010) with the haunting tale of a young woman reassessing her turbulent past . . . Brilliantly structured, beautifully written and profoundly sad. * Kirkus, Starred Review * When a Tom Rachman novel lands in the bookstores I stop living and breathing to devour it. It's hard to think of anyone who has a better grasp on the world we live in (and I mean, like, the entire planet) and can write about it with such entertainment and panache. * Gary Shteyngart, author of Little Failure * Sprawling, ambitious second novel. * New York Magazine * The detail is never overdone, the language is quirky and the novel's structure is beautifully managed * The Lady * Some novels are such good company that you don't want them to end; Tom Rachman knows this, and has pulled off the feat of writing one... All this amounts to a touching story of fallen idols, with brilliant insights into misplaced loyalties, and the power that adults have over children. Rachman has written a hugely likeable, even loveable book about the people we meet and how they shape us. * Sunday Telegraph * ...One of the paciest, easiest to read novels you could imagine... mesmerising: a thorough work-out for the head and heart that targets cognitive muscles you never knew you had. * The Times * The way the three stories mesh is a wonderful thing - suspense and intrigue in equal measure. Every so often it reminded me of Donna Tartt. * Evening Standard *

High-quality intellectual! Yes, I mean you! You are thinking: What is Rise & Fall of Great Powers? Is history book? No! Is book for give big muscles? No, no! (After read this book, you still contain only small muscles. Sorry.) It is NOVEL about entire of world in last quarter-century, from end of Cold War, to up and down of America power, to tech revolution of today. But mostly, is novel about my favourite person, Tooly Zylberberg, and secrets of her life. I am careful now - danger I say too much. I give only bit more: Tooly is bookseller in countryside of Wales. Always, she is reading. But one story she never understand: story of her past. When she is girl, strange items happen. She is taken away, around Asia, Europe, America, for many years with mystery persons. Why for? I cannot say on back of book! One of mystery persons is me, Humphrey, old man from Russia who cheats in Ping-Pong and eats avocados. There is Sarah, who drives us crazy, and not in good way. Also, there is Duncan and Fogg and potbelly pig. And there is Venn, who is most mystery person of all. The boy who write this book, his name is Tom Rachman. Maybe you hear of his first novel, The Imperfectionists? Bestseller book, publish in many language. Rise & Fall is very beauty follow-up. When you read it, you visit late Eighties, also Year 2000, also today; you see Bangkok, you see Brooklyn, you see bordertowns - also many places that are not begin with letter 'B'. What novel this is! Not for trivial beings, but I don't worry: just to look at you, I can tell you have very large brain. So, what you wait? Spanning three decades and criss-crossing the globe, THE RISE AND FALL OF GREAT POWERS is the story of Tooly Zylberberg and how she got to a second-hand bookshop in Wales via the streets of Manhattan and downtown Bangkok. This novel, dazzling in its scope and inventiveness, is peopled by an extraordinary array of unforgettable characters, from Humphrey the chess-playing Russian emigre to Venn, Tooly's shadowy protector.