The Wealth of Shadows by Graham Moore
Published by Random House
Publication date: May 21, 2024
Genres: Book Clubs, Fiction, Historical, Suspense
Bookshop, Amazon
Every time I think I’ve read about WWII from every possible perspective I’m proven wrong. This time is was due to Graham Moore’s The Wealth of Shadows, a novel of the war told solely within the realm of economics. Specifically, the reluctance to get involved on the part of numerous key political figures in the United States and how a secret offshoot of the Treasury Department worked, even before Hitler’s invasion of Poland, to shut down the German economy and avoid the war. Sound dry? You would think so, but this novel based on actual events and people read like the best of slow burn suspense.
Ansel Luxford is a tax attorney living in St. Paul in 1939 whose concerns about the potential for war in Europe were such that he uses his free time gathering alarming numbers about the German economy, which has gone from post-WWI destitution to what seems to be a thriving economic machine. All under the leadership and violent rhetoric of Adolf Hitler. By September of that year, he’s landed a job in D.C. in an unofficial Treasury division known as the Research Department and Germany has launched World War II. Ansel becomes one of a mismatched small group of economists whose mission is twofold: keep up the appearance of American neutrality while finding a way to disarm the Germany economy and end the war as quickly as possible.
For someone who changed their college major from Economics to English Literature because it was the only major that had no math requirement (I was flunking Calculus) it might seem that a novel based solely on finance and economics would be of little interest. Normally, yes, but the history revealed in The Wealth of Shadows was as engrossing as any thriller I’ve ever read. Moore paints a chilling portrait of men in suits using slide rulers and calmly discussing the cost of single bullet, then going home to their wives and a pot roast. He takes the saying “Money makes the world go round” to a frightening degree. I understand it as a part of capitalism and consumerism, but to learn that an economist in Germany was able to create a national Ponzi scheme that brought much of Europe to its knees and killed 75 million people when implemented by an egomaniacal dictator was mindboggling. The basic materials of The Wealth of Shadows may be as dry as currencies, trade agreements, and exchange rates but in Moore’s hands it becomes riveting historical fiction.
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*I received a free copy of this book from Random House in exchange for an honest review.*
I definitely want to read this! I will love the economics/math aspect as I was kind of your polar opposite – I had enough math when I started college to not take any math courses and I missed it so much and found myself helping others on my floor with their algebra coursework that I knew my calling was math so I switched my major to math in the spring of my freshman year of college. I usually would avoid any book about WWII because I am so burned out on that historical period but this sounds like a new/fresh takes! So thank you to you and Sarah for bringing this to my attention!!
I love this! I cannot even fathom wanting more math. That part of my brain is missing. You will definitely enjoy it- even as it’s a bit off-putting to read about the war from the American POV at the time. Feels very coldhearted.