Brazillionaires : The Godfathers of Modern Brazil

An investigative journalist uncovers the murky, scandalous world of Brazil's billionaires.

Longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award Wealth and power on the trail of the super-richIn 2012, Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista was the eighth richest man in the world, his $30bn fortune built on Brazil''s incredible natural resources. By the middle of 2013 he had lost it all, engulfed in scandal.Brazillionaires is a fast-paced account of Batista''s rise and fall: a story of helicopter flights, beach-front penthouses and high-speed car crashes. Along the way, it tells the parallel story of Brazil itself, a country caught in the cycle of boom and bust, renewed hope and dashed promise; a country where the hyper-rich are at the heart of the economy - and where their wealth can buy immense political power.Stefan Zweig said in 1941 that Brazil was the country of the future; Brazilians joke that it always will be. Today, rampant corruption and endemic inequality threaten to derail the new Brazilian Dream. The brazillionaires are the key to understanding that dream; through them Brazillionaires tells the story of their country''s past, present and future.