An interesting story

A good, well-written book that shines a light on the goings on at the Icelandic banks around the time of the financial crisis. The author is insightful and honest, and exposes not only the behaviours of these banks but the social norms of Iceland which allowed and encouraged this behaviour. I knocked a point off the performance because I found the narrator / author’s Icelandic twang a little jarring (although he seems to slip into a more standard American accent as the book goes on).

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A real eye opener

It was almost possible to stop listening once one started, it was both gripping and informative.

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Amazing

There are often stories that hit the news then disappear . Like Iceland is bankrupt, english councils loss millions but then just fade away . this book provides the answers, it read like the book red notice by bill browder,
Fraud, stupidity and corruption and just like the bankers in the GFC nobody gets punished .
An Amazing book Jarad thank you for giving answers to this semi forgotten story, a shame they are not the result the ordinary citizens of Iceland needed

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Great Listen

Interesting from start to finish. Jared did a great job writing and reading the book.

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wow! this is an eye opener and also very worrying!

a great book about a subject many of us don't know about beyond the global headlines.

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Compelling but......

I enjoy books that tell how organisations and the individuals in them transition from hubris to malfeasance through to outright criminality. The Iceland banks followed this path in a quite spectacular fashion and hence I was gripped by this tale which the Author was able to recount from his own personal experiences at one of the banks and then at the regulator investigating the wrong doings. His perspectives, as an outsider, of how Iceland's unique history and culture created the conditions which supported the existence and growth of these corrupt financial institutions is also interesting.

There are, however, frustrations. Firstly, the book is written by an amateur and this shows. While he has wisely kept the prose simple, it is not particularly well crafted and when he tries to spice it up he resorts to clichéd metaphors. He also reads it for the Audible version and while his performance is competent (and better than that of some authors) it would be more enjoyable to have a narrator with greater range and fluency. A further detraction is the multiple pointless diversions from the main saga. For example, he retells how he attended an interrogation course. This adds nothing interesting and the words wasted describing the low quality of coffee provided on the day are just bizarre. Finally, Jared only tells the story from his perspective. While this is perhaps fair enough, it left me longing for a book that gives a wider view describing the growth of these organisations and how they descended into illegality (eg as The Smartest Guys in the Room did for Enron).

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Don’t bother unless you like more red tape

Good story on Lessons from a small closed shop society. The conclusion sounds like a bitter ex employee who didn’t work well with other people and read the mood in a room or where the wind was going. The thing he likes about Iceland and dislikes are products of small places.

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Exhausting

This first hand account of the corruption within Iceland's banking and financial sector is a shocking and depressing story that needed to be told. Like the film 'The Long Short' it is a sorry tale that will leave any tax-paying, law-abiding citizen incredulous that no-one ended up serving any serious length of time behind bars and that many walked away with mega amounts of money hidden in off-shore accounts. I listened to the audiobook because I was interested in fleshing out what I already knew from the media but the narration was exhausting to keep up with. The Icelandic names of individuals, corporations, associations and places made it difficult to follow and, whilst some of the more personal content was interesting, it just added a further layer to get through in order to find the relevant information. At times I was exhausted trying to work out what was going on and wished the author would just stick to the main thread.

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A factual retelling of a great financial scandal

The events are truly scandalous and the insider’s account at times gripping, i nevertheless can’t say I fully enjoyed the book. The writer’s rather smug self congratulatory lecturing tone was at times to irritating for this reader.

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