The Money Trap: Lost Illusions Inside the Tech Bubble

In this wry debut, Sama—the former CFO of investment firm SoftBank—offers a behind-the-scenes peek at the crushing world of corporate finance. Skipping back and forth in time, Sama covers his arc from theorem-solving college student to right-hand aide to tech investor Masayoshi Son. Along the way, Sama describes how he brokered deals with some of the world’s largest companies while gradually coming to learn that a hefty income can’t insulate him from life’s difficulties. His greatest strength as a writer is the way he grounds the glitz of his professional life with gritty personal stakes: he ruminates on the gap between himself and his social media–skeptical son, then smoothly transitions to a dinner with Mark Zuckerberg. Elsewhere, he effectively juxtaposes his attempts to fight off a smear campaign designed to remove him from SoftBank with his grief over his parents’ deaths. Less successful are the book’s granular descriptions of NASDAQ numbers and the mechanics of finance, which are likely to lose all but the most well-versed readers. In the end, it’s the smear campaign, during which business rivals surveil and threaten Sama’s family, that drives him out of tech investment and reminds him that “money doesn’t give you control, it buys you a nicer coat.” In Sama’s hands, that feels like revolutionary advice. Agent: Lynn Johnston, Lynn Johnston Literary. (Sept.)