Something great and beautiful

About this book

"Rosso Fiorentino, a charming loser who dreams of becoming a writer, falls in love with Chloé, a brilliant young woman with a troubled past. They meet in India, where famous Italian novelist the Maestro has decided to spend his last days. They cross paths again in the coastal town of Portofino, and Rosso, following the Maestro's injunction to finally do something worthwhile with his life, enlists the help of his friends, a baker and a champion street seller, to follow Chloé to America and sell focaccia on the streets of New York. While he first struggles to make a living with odd jobs, Chloé, now armed with a law degree from Chicago, gets hired by a top Wall Street firm. Rosso is eventually able to achieve his dream, opening a little bakery in Queens, followed by a second one on Broadway. The business is an instant success. The banks start throwing money at him, and in the blink of an eye the company undergoes the largest IPO in US history. Until the bubble bursts and all gets played out in a New York courtroom. This modern fairy tale about ambition, hubris, and love exposes with scintillating wit the absurdity of the 2008 global meltdown, and foreshadows the future in which we now live"--