A banker by profession and the author of four bestsellers — If God was a Banker, I Bought The Monk’s Ferrari, Devil in Pinstripes and The Incredible Banker — Ravi Subramanian, is now launching his new book, The Bankster, on October 19. The IIM-Bangalore alumnus, who also works as CEO of Shriram Finance’s non-chit division talks to us about his new book. “It’s an interesting story, as usual, set in a foreign bank, and in three countries across the globe. In Angola, a covert CIA agent is about to exchange weapons for blood diamonds. In Kerala, an elderly man will do whatever it takes to fulfil a promise made to a dying son. In Mumbai, an international bank is stunned by the mysterious deaths of its key employees,” he says to introduce his book.
He’s gotten innovative with the format of book promotion. “I call it the digital soap format wherein we release manga comic style illustration of the chapters of the book, on my Facebook page, and by the time the book is released, the reader knows almost 40 per cent of the story. But that will whet his appetite for more, and the day the book is released, he would want to go and read the balance. This form of book promotion has never been done before,” says Subramanian.
He started writing this book after the tremendous success of The Incredible Banker. Response from the readers urged him to write again. “The way scandal after scandal broke out in the global banking and financial services space, it reinforced the thought that there is a lot to write about in the financial services space — money, fraud, sleaze, scandals, crime, investigations, relationships, all exist hand in hand in this industry. So here I am asking a question if the banker of today is fast turning into a ‘bankster’,” he elaborates. Wall Street Journal didn’t refer to him as the Grisham of Banking for nothing. The plot takes a number of twists and turns and everything comes together at the end of the 360 page book. You can view the teasers on his Facebook page: www.facebook.com/authorravisubramanian.
— preethi@newindianexpress.com