Longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award
Wealth and power on the trail of the super-rich
In 2012, Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista was the eighth richest man in the world, his $30bn fortune built on Brazil's incredible natural resources. By the middle of 2013 he had lost it all, engulfed in scandal.
Brazillionaires is a fast-paced account of Batista's rise and fall: a story of helicopter flights, beach-front penthouses and high-speed car crashes. Along the way, it tells the parallel story of Brazil itself, a country caught in the cycle of boom and bust, renewed hope and dashed promise; a country where the hyper-rich are at the heart of the economy - and where their wealth can buy immense political power.
Stefan Zweig said in 1941 that Brazil was the country of the future; Brazilians joke that it always will be. Today, rampant corruption and endemic inequality threaten to derail the new Brazilian Dream. The brazillionaires are the key to understanding that dream; through them Brazillionaires tells the story of their country's past, present and future.
Brazillionaires : The Godfathers of Modern Brazil
Description
Author Description
Alex Cuadros is a freelance journalist and writer based in New York. He spent six years living in Sao Paulo and has written for the New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post and Bloomberg, where he was a dedicated 'billionaires reporter'. This is his first book.