Something Great and Beautiful

September 1, 2018

This delightfully preposterous send-up of the 2008 economic crash doesn't disappoint. Rosso Fiorentino, an aspiring Italian writer (and something of a con man), is hired by a famous writer simply known as "Maestro" to accompany him to India, there commanding him to do "something great and beautiful." In India, Rosso meets Chloé, a journalist and future lawyer, who will eventually become his employee and sometimes girlfriend. Back home, Rosso has the idea of opening a focaccia shop, and with renowned focaccia baker Don Otto and street peddler Sachin, heads to New York to find Chloé and open the store. The concept quickly takes off, the company expands rapidly, and Rosso gains financially, all the while relying on the advice of a "bum-economist" who lives beneath a New York sewer grate. Yet despite undergoing the largest IPO in American history, the company becomes overleveraged, relying increasingly on debt to grow. And then the crash comes. VERDICT Italian author Pellegrini's first novel written in English skewers the absurdities of Wall Street, combining the comic with the trenchant to create a winning recipe.--Lawrence Rungren, Andover, MA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2018
Rosso Fiorentino's glories seemed to be only in the past. A 24-year-old with vague ideas of becoming a writer, he is haunted by the death of his girlfriend in a crash. But when the famed writer he is working for grants an unforgettable interview to a young journalist named Chlo� at a wedding in India, Rosso is instantly smitten. Chlo� moves to America to earn her law degree, landing at a prestigious Wall Street firm where she is given menial, pointless tasks. Rosso, meanwhile, after selling his once-noble family's crest on the street to unsuspecting American tourists, leaves Italy and also moves to America, where he quickly builds a focaccia-shop empire. When Rosso and Chlo�'s paths cross again, it will be at the intersection of romance and commerce, in a hurricane of Wall Street bluster that will eventually lead to a courtroom during the height of the 2008 economic crisis. Both a love story and a witty indictment of the boom-or-bust cycles of the financial world, Something Great and Beautiful is an enjoyable, almost mythical tale written with flair and searing insight.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)