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The devious world of international finance comes alive in Christina Stead's enthralling epic about a ruthless bank director in 1930s Paris Praised as "a work of extraordinary talent" by the New York Times, Christina Stead's ambitiously layered House of All Nations is an engrossing satire of wealth and manipulation. Set in an elite European bank in the 1930s, Stead's epic spans the interwar years of a money-hungry Paris. Jules Bertillon, the distrustful and unpredictable bank director, sees every national disaster-including war-as an opportunity for riches. Adored by his clients for his ability to rake in staggering profits, Bertillon leaves no opening wasted-even if it means dealing with unsavory speculators or ruthless gamblers while his clients suffer the consequences. A stunning page-turner, House of All Nations is as significant and resonant today as it was upon its publication in 1938.
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Reviews
"Other Stead fans, turning to House of All Nations... can make a case for her as the century's greatest novelist of the workplace and a psychological writer par excellence, with her devastating portraits of ruthless charlatans and misguided idealists."
The New York Times
"A second reading confirms how well assembled the book is, how deftly Stead juggles her vast cast and her many narrative strands, and how clearly she keeps a subplot's pivotal details before the reader over a stretch of five hundred pages or more.... I remain in awe of House of All Nations."
The New York Times
"[Stead] is really marvelous."
Saul Bellow