Well written, rich in use of language. Great read.

Recommended. It didn't get me super emotionally engaged but the characters were well realized in a "these are the people in your neighborhood" type way. Timely for the London Olympics.

"Capital" by John Lanchester is definitely one of the books in my category "discovery of the year". Having picked up the book by coincidence during my last visit to Waterstones in Brussels, drawn to it by its cover, I didn't know quite what to expect and ended up being very positively surprised.

"Capital" is set in London, in the period 2007-2008, right before the financial crisis hits and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers is only the start of a whole series of financial institutions going down. As an economist, this aspect of "capital" already got my attention. But non-money lovers, people who shiver when they hear financial news, should not put aside this book for this. For I believe that "capital" in the title refers more to "life in the capital city of the UK". Protagnists of the story are a number of families / households / people who all live in Pepys Road. A road that once housed middle-class people but developed to be one of the richer streets in the city. We follow an old widow who has lived in this road all her life and is struggling with the changes, waiting for visits by her daughter and grandson. We meet banker Roger, who works 17 hours days to make the 1 million GBP bonus he so needs to a) keep his house and b) finance the shopping sprees of his wife Arabella, the two nannies and all the luxuries involved. We meet the brothers Uman, Shahid and Ali from Pakistan who run a store in the street to get by. Then there's top-soccer star Freddy who moved to London from Senegal to make his carreer in a UK Soccer team. There is a group of Polish builders, who earn a living by building, rebuilding and yet again rebuilding the houses in Pepys Road, saving money to one day be able to buy a nice house in their home town. And then there's a traffic warden who's illegal in the county, but wants to make a living too. A nice diverse group of people whose lives intervene at different points.

To make matters more complicated is something funny going on : all of them receive, on a regular basis, postcards with a picture of their house on it, with on the back only written "We want what you have" . Nobody knows who the sender of the messages is. But as the campaign becomes more aggressive, so increases the tension in the street.

I fell in love with the way John Lancaster develops the different characters and with the irony and humor used in his language. It makes the story an incredible realistic, humane, touching and funny one.

Must read!

I'm having a hard time finding something about this novel that I didn't like.
There are a ton of characters, but I was never confused as to who we were following. Lanchester then took the reader into the life of each person we followed, making each one a real person in a matter of pages (no idea how he did that).
While giving each character depth, he also manages to weave together many strands and touch on a whole host of themes without it becoming to much.
Toward the end, I was able to predict what the solution to the mystery was, but I suspect that was intentional.

I actually liked this book, but I have been reading it for weeks and can't seem to make much headway. I can take about three of the short chapters at a time. I finally gave up about half way through. I'm not sure where it's leading, but I just don't have the patience to find out. I may give it another try down the road.

I read this book on the advice of a friend and throughly enjoyed it. The story is very good and the characters are all very real and interact well.

This book changes perspectives a lot, which is good if you like that (which I do) but not so good if it confuses you. I liked almost all of the different perspectives--except Parker's. I didn't like Parker at all; he was too whiny.

The writing was very good, and it was easy to put down and pick up again. Also the chapters are short, which can be good when you like reading up to the end of a chapter before going to bed (which I do).

what even was the point of this book I mean really

This was a terrific read, although I thought the ending left a bit to be desired. Still, strongly recommended.