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Capital: A Novel by John Lanchester

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This novel follows the inhabitants of one rather affluent street in London, Pepys Road, in the year 2008, a time when the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers changed the financial landscape of London and the world seemingly forever. One family on Pepys Road lives a life of conspicuous consumption and when the head of the household doesn’t get an anticipated £1 million year-end bonus at his Canary Wharf banking institution, some difficult choices have to be made. Their Hungarian nanny hooks up with the Polish laborer who works at various houses along the road, a Zimbabwen meter maid whose immigration status is in question frequents the street, and a Pakastani family runs the corner shop. Additional characters are introduced, all linked by their association to Pepys Road. It’s sort of a posh East Enders. I didn’t really want it to end, even at 500+ pages. It brought to mind Jeffrey Eugenides or Jonathan Franzen, or certainly Zadie Smith’s White Teeth.

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  1. AnonymousJuly 13, 2012 at 11:27 AM

    Hah! You beat the NYTBR to the punch! http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/books/review/capital-a-novel-by-john-lanchester.html

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