Introduction

A captivating financial thriller with a fast-paced plot, Nineteenth Street NW offers a rare glimpse into the mechanisms behind world economies.

Freedom fighter Sophia Gemaye comes from an obscure, mineral-rich, third-world nation where the ruling elite plunders much of the country's wealth. Western governments, greedy for the natural resources, turn a blind eye to the routine oppression, deaths, and disappearances.

To bring attention to the plight of her people, Sophia turns to economic terrorism, devising a plan to sabotage world currency markets. The goal: bring the mightiest corporations and economies to their knees. Her scheme will be neither cheap nor easy. Money she gets from some dubious backers, but she is also needs highly secret financial information--and some very special software to manipulate it. For these, she heads to the International Monetary and Financial Organization (IMFO) where she must woo Harry Hoffinger, whose cutting-edge computer model is crucial to Sophia's plan.

Sophia's penchant for confidential data--and for Harry--catches the eye of Celine O'Rourke, an embittered IMFO veteran, whose dogged pursuit of Sophia's secret takes her from the riot-torn streets of Jakarta to the corridors of power in Washington DC and the hallowed halls of the Palais des Nations in Geneva. As the financial markets begin to crumble, and the lives of key finance ministers hang in the balance, both women will learn the price of love--and the cost of betrayal.

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Excerpt

Prologue: In July 1944, the allied nations met for the International Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Determined that a Great Depression should never recur, the conference founded two new institutions. The World Bank was established to finance reconstruction and development. The International Monetary Fund was created to promote consultation and collaboration on international monetary and financial problems. More than half a century later, these institutions still stand—one on either side of Nineteenth Street, NW. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

From the publisher:

1. The author of Nineteenth Street NW, Rex Ghosh, has an extensive background in international economics, finance, and public policy as a leading advisor on several macroeconomic stabilization programs. His current position concerns the stability of the international monetary system. How do you feel that this experience contributed to the writing of Nineteenth Street NW?

2. In Nineteenth Street NW there are some graphic descriptions about the often devastating effects of financial crises on the lives of ordinary citizens. The United States is coming out of its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. How has this crisis affected you—your job, your home, your personal finances and family budget, your retirement savings? Does the book give you other insights or perspectives on how the financial crisis did or could have affected you? [Do you feel more sympathetic to people in other countries suffering economic crises as a result of the book or your own experience over the past couple of years?]

3. After reading Nineteenth Street NW, how has your opinion of financial terrorism changed? Do you feel that this is a problem our nation may have to deal with in the near future?

4. Rex Ghosh lists on his website (http://www.nineteenthstreetnw.com/prevent19.html) 10 tips on what you can do to help prevent financial terrorism. Were you taking these steps before you read Nineteenth Street NW? If not, do you plan on putting some of his suggestions into place?

5. Freedom fighter Sophia Gemaye has many struggles in the beginning of the novel with her ethnicity, especially when she remembers visiting her boyfriend Simon in England underneath the disapproving stares of his parents. Have you ever had an experience where you felt out of place or "foreign?" How did you react?

6. Nineteenth Street NW features two very strong female lead characters—Sophia Gemaye and Celine O'Rourke, an embittered IMFO veteran. What do you believe has been the impact on having two female leads carry the plot of the book? Do you believe the plot or the book would have been significantly different if one of these characters had been male?

7. Celine obviously has some terrifying personal experiences while working in the countries IMFO has sent her, Indonesia in particular. How do you feel that these horrifying moments contributed to her reserved nature? What importance did her memories carry throughout the novel?

8. While Celine and Harry work together to prevent a total financial collapse from occurring in Indonesia, she feels demeaned, put down, and not taken seriously by the Managing Director of the IMFO Toyoo Kiyotaki during the presentation of their findings. How do you feel that Celine handled this incident? Have you experienced anything similar in a work situation where you were looked down upon because of your age, gender, or background?

9. Oftentimes when other books are named in a published work, they share some similarities or parallel plot lines with the character who reads them. In Nineteenth Street NW, Sophia is in the process of writing a book that concerns Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Yevgeny Zamyatin's We. In all three books, the economic structure of society is inextricably linked to the power of the ruling oligarchy and their ability to deny personal freedom and control individual thought. Do you see any parallels between these three books, the above concept they share in common, and Nineteenth Street NW?

10. Sophia and Melamed are from an obscure, mineral-rich, third-world nation where the ruling elite plunders much of the country's wealth. Both have lost loved ones when standing up to their corrupt government—for Sophia, her father and for Melamed, his fiancée. To avenge their loved ones and to try and make a better future for their country, the two have turned to financial and other forms of terrorism in an attempt to gain some attention. What would you have done if you were in their place?

11. The ending of Nineteenth Street NW is not exactly a happy one, unlike many other thrillers on the market today. How did you feel that it was fitting to the outcome of the novel? And if you did not, what would you have changed?

Weblinks

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