The Trading Game: A Confession is a viscerally thrilling and darkly disturbing rollercoaster memoir

Book of the week with Waterstones of Norfolk Street, Lynn:The Trading Game: A Confession, by Gary Stevenson (paperback)Viscerally thrilling and darkly disturbing, Stevenson’s rollercoaster memoir of his life as a ruthless city trader introduces an intoxicating yet amoral cast of characters who deal in trillions of dollars of other people’s money every day.

An outrageous, white-knuckle journey to the dark heart of an intoxicating world – from someone who survived the trading game and then blew it all wide open’If you were gonna rob a bank, and you saw the vault door there, left open, what would you do? Would you wait around?’Ever since he was a kid, kicking broken footballs on the streets of East London in the shadow of Canary Wharf’s skyscrapers, Gary wanted something better. Something a whole lot bigger. Then he won a competition run by a bank: ‘The Trading Game’. The prize: a golden ticket to a new life, as the youngest trader in the whole city. A place where you could make more money than you’d ever imagined. Where your colleagues are dysfunctional maths geniuses, overfed public schoolboys and borderline psychopaths, yet they start to feel like family.Where soon you’re the bank’s most profitable trader, dealing in nearly a trillion dollars. A day. Where you dream of numbers in your sleep – and then stop sleeping at all. But what happens when winning starts to feel like losing? When the easiest way to make money is to bet on millions becoming poorer and poorer – and, as the economy starts slipping off a precipice, your own sanity starts slipping with it? You want to stop, but you can’t. Because nobody ever leaves.Would you stick, or quit? Even if it meant risking everything?Buy a copy of this Friday’s Lynn News for a voucher to get £1 off The Trading Game: A Confession, by Gary Stevenson (paperback) Top ten chart with Waterstones of Norfolk Street, Lynn:1. The Frozen People (preorder) – Elly Griffiths
2. The List of Suspicious Things – Jennie Godfrey
3. The Figurine – Victoria Hislop
4. The Armour of Light – Ken Follet
5. The Anxious Generation – Jonathan Haidt
6. Onyx Storm – Rebecca Yarros
7. Butter – Asako Yuzuki
8. The Warm Hands of Ghosts – Katherine Arden
9. Hunted – Abir Mukerjee
10. Poison Garden – LJ Ross