I recently finished “Red Notice” by Bill Browder. Admittedly I didn’t really know what the book was about going into it. I had added it to my “To Read” list on goodreads when I heard about it from several people in the Twitter Finance community (“FinTwit”) and it rose to the top when I sorted by “Average Rating” from highest to lowest. Naturally I assumed it was going to be good, and it delivered.
I can’t say too much about the book without spoiling it, other than to say it is captivating and page-turning. As someone who is interested in finance, it was fascinating to learn about Mr. Browder’s background and how he came to found Hermitage Capital with his business partner, Edmond Safra, by identifying investment opportunities in the early 90’s post-Communist Russia in the form of undervalued companies arising from the “voucher privatisation” program.
Ultimately, Browder set out on a path that “was relevant to him and who he was” and succeeded. It is interesting to note how his grandfather, Earl Browder, was once the leader of the American Communist Party in the 1930’s and 40’s and later fell out of favor with the Soviet Union- in this book, you’ll see that Mr. Browder’s own life took a similar arc.
So if you’re interested in finance, investing in emerging markets, Eastern Europe, and Russia, then this book is definitely for you.