* * * * * * * * National Bestseller * * * * * * * * Chosen by LitHub, Amazon, and The New York Times DealBook’s “Best of the Year” * * * * * * * *

♡ Order your copy at Flatiron Books/Macmillan or bookshop or indiebound ♡

“A vivid account” — New York Times Dealbook, Turning the Page on 2022: A selection of the best business books of the year

“This is an essential and enraging book, and it’s also a page-turner, even if you have a literary website editor’s knowledge of the financial world. It’s also very funny." -- Jessie Gaynor, senior editor, LitHub, “Our 38 Favorite Books of 2022”

“[A] galloping narrative…Ms. Childs, a host of NPR’s “Planet Money,” is fluent in English (including four-letter words, for which she has a striking affinity) and in finance as well. She is a keen observer—of the “abruptly rich” young titans at Pimco and of their boss’s aversions (noise on the trading floor, eye contact, cellphones, Christmas parties) and pleasures (bonds, work, stamp collecting). She ably describes the mechanics of the mortgage futures market, which, in a 1983 coup, a brainy Pimco team managed virtually to corner.” — Jim Grant, founder of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, in The Wall Street Journal review. picked as one of the WSJ’s “10 Books To Read: The Best Reviews of March”

“[Childs‘] reporting in “The Bond King,” her new biography of Gross, is admirably thorough. She seems to have interviewed or tried to interview nearly everyone who worked with him over the years.” — James B. Stewart, Columbia University professor of business journalism and author of Den of Thieves and Deep State: Trump, the FBI and the Rule of Law, in The New York Times review.

"The narrative in The Bond King has a lot of King Lear in it, a bit of Game of Thrones, and definitely some Real Housewives — but with guys who have Bloomberg Terminals." --  Todd Trubey, Morningstar

"[Childs's] book The Bond King isn’t just the story of Bill Gross. It’s about the expansion of finance to its current form, where experts rule and the little guy can’t win…[this] carefully reported book about Bill Gross & Pimco is a page-turner, full of sharp observations about the man & his milieu. Plus Mary explains complex fixed income trades better than anyone, anywhere. Don't miss this!" ― Emily Flitter, New York Times

"Childs’ authoritative, engaging book about pioneering bond trader Gross, from the investment management firm PIMCO, portrays him as brilliant and a visionary, who devised a new way to invest by making a market for trading bonds. Yet he also comes across as an egotistical, mercurial boss who was so verbally abusive to his staff that some avoided walking by his office to keep from running into him." — Investopedia, The 7 Best Investing Books

"So good" -- Morgan Housel, author, The Psychology of Money

"READ THIS BOOK: it’s my must-read book this spring. [Childs] shines in explaining the odd logic of financial markets." -- Scarlet Fu, Bloomberg Quicktake editorial lead and Bloomberg Television anchor

"OMG! 1) Mary explains finance, financial engineering, and macroeconomics very well. 2) Obviously lots about Gross and Pimco I wasn’t aware of. Though I sat a few feet, generally less than 30, from Gross on trade floor, I got schooled!" -- John Brynjolfsson, ex PIMCO

"Riveting. Can't put it down. This book is so good." -- Nicole Boyson, Finance professor, Northeastern University

"[Childs] persevered for years on this project to bring us this important and entertaining story" -- Sujeet Indap, Financial Times, author of Caesars Palace Coup

"I knew nothing about Bill Gross and thought bonds were boring. That was before I read The Bond King." -- Trey Lockerbie, host, We Study Billionaires podcast

"Who the heck reads a book thrice in two months? I did. Mary Childs's The Bond King is a page-turner―about treacherous ... credit wonks" ― Roben Farzad, host of public radio's Full Disclosure

"It's amazingly good. It cuts through all the mind-numbing jargon of the finance world to provide an accessible and illuminating look at the rise of the multitrillion-dollar bond market. It's beautifully written. It's meticulously researched and reported. It's eye opening. And it centers on a fascinating and entertaining character whose journey takes us right to the heart of the story of high finance over the last half century." ― Greg Rosalsky, Planet Money newsletter

"It has been a long time since I devoured a book as just assiduously as this… I was completely gripped and I loved it.” ― Felix Salmon, Slate Money

"Unputdownable. [T]he award-winning financial journalist Mary Childs paints a vivid picture of how it all began and unraveled for the man credited with turning a once sleepy and low-risk corner of finance into an exciting casino." ― Vicky Huang, Insider

"[A] vivid tale of the bond manager and his empire." ― Niel Irwin, Axios

"The Bond King is an engaging read....I hope to see more historical chronicles on major financial institutions from Childs in the future, given her demonstrated ability to tell a story and to mix in humor at an opportune time." — Vern McKinley for the Cato Institute

"A vivid and authoritative portrait of one of the most influential figures in American finance." ― Sheelah Kolhatkar, staff writer at The New Yorker and bestselling author of Black Edge

"An instant classic of finance and a joy to read. Mary Childs has a gift for explaining the rise of the modern bond market, one of the most important stories of finance, and interlaces that story with the deeply reported, thrilling, tragic and occasionally comic human story of the downfall of Bill Gross. And it is all written with great style, wit and insight." ― Matt Levine, 'Money Stuff' columnist, Bloomberg Opinion

"A most necessary book. Mary Childs is one of a handful of finance writers who understand how the industry has reshaped America and helped create the strange, often failing society we inhabit. And one cannot understand modern finance without understanding the character of the mad bond king Bill Gross. Well-researched and written with verve, this is nothing short of a page-turner." ― Gary Shteyngart, author of Our Country Friends and Lake Success

Picked for "Morningstar’s 2022 Recommended Reading List"

CEO Today's "Top 8 Business Reads For The Beach”

Investopedia’s Best Investing Book of 2022 

Business Insider's "20 of the Most Anticipated Nonfiction Books of 2022"

From the host of NPR’s Planet Money, the deeply-investigated story of how one visionary, dogged investor changed American finance forever.

Before Bill Gross was known among investors as the Bond King, he was a gambler. In 1966, a fresh college grad, he went to Vegas armed with his net worth ($200) and a knack for counting cards. $10,000 and countless casino bans later, he was hooked: so he enrolled in business school.

The Bond King is the story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino. Over the course of decades, Bill Gross turned the sleepy bond market into a destabilized game of high risk, high reward; founded Pimco, one of today’s most powerful, secretive, and cutthroat investment firms; helped to reshape our financial system in the aftermath of the Great Recession—to his own advantage; and gained legions of admirers, and enemies, along the way. Like every American antihero, his ambition would also be his undoing.

To understand the winners and losers of today’s money game, journalist Mary Childs argues, is to understand the bond market—and to understand the bond market is to understand the Bond King.

Learn more about the book at NPR’s All Things Considered, Planet Money, or The New York Times’ Dealbook….

“How Civil War History Explains Memestocks:” Emily Flitter, New York Times

“Money, Power or Fame?:” A Wealth of Common Sense

“Does fund manager culture matter?:” Citywire’s Picks & Plans with Alex & Alex

Chasing the Bond King: Barry Ritholtz

♡ Order your copy at Flatiron Books/Macmillan or bookshop or indiebound ♡

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