The Exchange-rate Between Love and Money

Jul 19, 2025 11:48 AM

Author:Thomas Leveritt

Sarajevo, 2003. Best friends Frito and Bannerman roll into town, still in search of the fortune they missed out on in the dot-com years. For a while it seems that soaking up reconstruction money isn't the worst plan ever. But then they both meet Clare, a prosecutor with the international war crimes tribunal, and they both realise she is the best person they've has ever met, and that they can't both have her as much as they would, ideally, like.

Meanwhile the city is overrun by black marketeers, poker hustlers, intelligence officers, and expat hedonists all high on Dayton money. By the time Frito and Bannerman have started bounty hunting men accused of war crimes, their lives have taken on all the risk - but very little of the money - that they'd bargained for...

Winner of the Betty Trask Award.

Reviews

Part love story, part hilarious political send-up, Leveritt's debut is hectic, intense and verbally dazzling

—— Guardian

Brutal, crazed and hilarious

—— New Statesman

There aren't many debuts with this scope. Leveritt's take on 2003 Sarajevo is a nutty, funny and constantly inventive ride

—— Matt Thorne

Start reading and you'll be drawn into a manic tale of two on-the-make friends who hightail it to Sarajevo... a debut audacious enough to broach questions of heroism and justice

—— Hephzibah Anderson , Daily Mail

Thomas Leveritt's debut radiates a certain clued-up, slacker intelligence ... a chaotic combination of wisecracking irony, effortless confidence and a casual, almost lazy informality. Serving up political farce and human tragedy side by side, his story of a city in which everything has its price unravels at breakneck speed

—— Metro

A hectic and humorous debut

—— Tatler

Hectically entertaining

—— Arena

Leveritt is adept at capturing the strange atmosphere of post-war Sarajevo...an ambitious attempt to capture the peculiar flavour of a forgotten country, a forgotten war

—— Independent

Lawrence Hill's hugely impressive historical work is completely engrossing and deserves a wide, international readership

—— Washington Post

A powerful indictment of the way in which so many innocent victims were robbed of everything dear to them

—— Yorkshire Evening Post

An unforgettably vivid picture of the Atlantic slave trade... a remarkable achievement, which deservedly won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize

—— Spectator

A masterpiece, daring and impressive in its geographic, historical and human reach, convincing in its narrative art and detail

—— The Globe and Mail

Aminata is a heroic figure... you can never forget this character. She embeds herself in your heart

—— Toronto Star

Previous Article：The Gulf Between Us Next Article：Rhyming Life and Death

Comments

Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.