The Rise and Fall of Great Powers

‘This mysterious story, beautifully composed and lyrical, is anchored by its deeply etched, oddball characters, floating in and out of Tooly’s life, and by a richly detailed sense of time and place. When we return, at the end, to Tooly’s musty old bookstore of meagre dreams, it’s in this most reassuringly mundane of places that a magical moment may or may not occur, leaving a great big smile on your face either way as you reluctantly close the covers.‘ * New Daily *
‘When a Tom Rachman novel lands in the bookstores, I stop living and breathing to devour it. It’s hard to think of anyone who has a better grasp on the world we live in (and I mean, like, the entire planet) and can write about it with such entertainment and panache.’ – Gary Shteyngart
‘The haunting tale of a young woman reassessing her turbulent past … brilliantly structured, beautifully written.’ starred review * Kirkus Reviews *
‘Rachman’s kaleidoscopic second novel demonstrates that one’s family is very often made up of the people you find and who find you along the way.’ * Booklist *
‘A suspenseful novel that whisks readers around the world … [a journey] worth taking.’ * Publishers Weekly *
‘A tale about the mystery of the self, the power of books, and how truth and fiction can inextricably intermingle … captivating.’ * Library Journal *
‘Deft, clever and a little bit wacky, Tom Rachman’s follow up to the internationally acclaimed The Imperfectionists, is a delight. The Rise and Fall of Great Powers is a wonderful piece of story telling.’ – Hoopla
‘Brilliantly structured, beautifully written and profoundly sad.’ starred review * Kirkus Reviews *
‘This is a book about constant motion…about individual lives: how opaque we are to each other, and how little we understand our own histories…I’ll keep The Rise and Fall of Great Powers on my shelf.’ * Guardian *

Tom Rachman was born in 1974 in London, and grew up in Vancouver. He has worked as an editor at the foreign desk of The Associated Press in New York, as an AP correspondent in Rome and as an editor at the International Herald Tribune in Paris. Rachman now lives in London. His first novel, The Imperfectionists, was longlisted for the The Giller Prize.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.