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Table of Contents
About The Book
A novel of nine linked parables about globalization, ambition, hope, love, and greed spanning two decades and eight countries.
Fall 2008. The Waldorf Astoria New York. Two armed men storm the hotel’s famed bar and hold the occupants hostage: an American corporate raider, a Chinese tycoon, a British hedge fund manager, a Japanese housewife-turned-celebrity, a Mexican undocumented worker, a Wall Street bond salesman, and a Norwegian environmentalist.
Who are these terrorists? What do they want? And what ties them to their captives?
Merry-Go-Round Broke Down is a genre-breaking novel that explores globalization’s “butterfly effect”: how choices made in one corner of the world ignited an unstoppable chain of consequences that upended lives across continents.
Product Details
- Publisher: Regalo Press (March 31, 2026)
- Length: 352 pages
- ISBN13: 9798895655818
Raves and Reviews
“What a fantastic tapestry of wordsmithing and storytelling! It left me with a much better understanding of how the world was woven so tightly by globalization, all through the dramatic stories of fascinating cultures and characters that are relevant to this day.”
– Paul Tudor Jones, Chief Investment Officer of Tudor Investment Corporation
“You might think that it would be impossible to write a novel that helps the reader put her arms around the complex issues raised by globalization. Yet, David Woo and Margalit Shinar have done precisely this. The result is most engaging and insightful. It is also one that even globalization experts such as myself can profit from.”
– Jagdish Bhagwati, University Professor of economics and law at Columbia University, author of In Defense of Globalization
“Merry-Go-Round Broke Down depicts the key socio-economic developments of the last quarter-century. It brings to life the people who put them into effect, as well as those who were affected by them. Few were untouched.”
– Howard Marks, the co-founder and co-CEO of Oaktree Capital and international best-selling author of The Most Important Thing
“A timely portrait of a world bound together by the pursuit of profit.”
– Kirkus Reviews
“An ambitious thriller with rich characterizations and a heart-pounding pace, Merry-Go-Round Broke Down also offers a stark, on-the-ground vision of globalization’s devastation.”
– Booklife by Publishers Weekly
“David Woo and Margalit Shinar have perfectly illustrated how even a tenuous connection between individuals can have a profound, far-reaching effect across the world that could never have been predicted.”
– Reader’s Favorite
“Merry-Go-Round Broke Down is a contemporary fiction novel with the propulsion of a financial thriller. It’s fiction, but it wants to explain the world while it entertains you… If you want a story that makes you look up from the page and think, “Wait, is this how it really works?,” then it delivers.”
– Literary Titan
“A breathtaking financial thriller about globalization’s winners, losers and casualties, bound together by money and fate. Merry-Go-Round Broke Down may be the smartest novel you read all year.”
– Best Thrillers
“A finely crafted web of stories spanning a decade and three continents, evocatively exploring the human realities behind global finance.”
– Independent Book Review
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Book Cover Image (jpg): Merry-Go-Round Broke Down
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