The Man from Lisbon

by Thomas Gifford

Book Overview

A novel about a real life con man This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0070231877
• ISBN13: 9780070231870
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 418 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Man From Lisbon

A historical novel about Alves Reis, a real-life con man who so flooded Portugal with counterfeit escudo notes in the 1920's that he almost crashed that nation's economy. But Reis was too smart to be a counterfeit-plates-in-the-basement type of guy; he masterfully forged documents to get a British banknote firm to print them, convincing the firm that the government of Portugal wanted the notes to secretly kick-start the economy in Portugal's colony in Angola. Reis goes from rags to riches and becomes a posterboy for conspicuous consumption. The movie-like plot takes us from Lisbon and Oporto to Angola, London and Paris where Reis has a torrid affair with a Hollywood-bound actress who is a friend of Hemingway and legendary Swedish "Match King," Ivar Kreuger. Slow in spots, (the 418-page hardback is about 100 pages too long), it's still an excellent read about the Bernie Madoff of 1920's Europe.