The Art of Greed: A Novel of the Rise and Fall of the Asian Great Gatsby

An intricate choreography of greed

“I think of myself as the writer and master choreographer of a vast and elegant European-style ballet, in which all of the performers must move in precise unison and harmony to create a breathtaking display of dance in its most sublime form. The problem for me and 1MDB was that too many of my players simply blew their parts.” So concludes Jho Low, Malaysian businessman and mastermind of the notorious 1MDB scandal, as he narrates this fictional account of the affair. All told, Jho Low siphoned $4.5 billion from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

This imagined retelling of Jho Low’s story, based on real events, gives readers an insider’s view of the glitzy, glamorous world of wealth and privilege, as well as a close-up look at this enigmatic protagonist’s high-stakes fall from grace. The narrator is quirky yet eloquent, at times thoughtful and other times brash, as he leads readers through the corridors of power, where the line between friend and foe blurs. As secrets unravel and fortunes teeter on the edge, readers get a front-row seat to the dark underbelly of high finance and the price of unchecked ambition and greed.