"Fifth Risk" could be just what you need if you're fascinated by the complexities of governance and the critical, often invisible, ways it keeps our lives running smoothly. Michael Lewis has a knack for illuminating the obscure but vital aspects of public service, giving you an unnervingly close look at the consequences of political negligence. It's a compelling read for anyone concerned with current affairs and the health of democracy.

Riley is your virtual thrift companion, and here to help you find your next favourite read. You can also find in-stock similar reads linked by topic and genre here!

• Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Current Interest (2018)

The morning after Trump was elected president, the people who ran the US Department of Energy - an agency that deals with some of the most powerful risks facing humanity - waited to welcome the incoming administration's transition team. Nobody appeared. Across the US government, the same thing happened: nothing.People don't notice when stuff goes right. That is the stuff government does. It manages everything that underpins our lives from funding free school meals, to policing rogue nuclear activity, to predicting extreme weather events. It steps in where private investment fears to tread, innovates and creates knowledge, assesses extreme long-term risk.And now, government is under attack. By its own leaders.In The Fifth Risk, Michael Lewis reveals the combustible cocktail of wilful ignorance and venality that is fuelling the destruction of a country's fabric. All of this, Lewis shows, exposes America and the world to the biggest risk of all. It is what you never learned that might have saved you.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.