Anansi's Gold

Reviews

An enthralling rags-to-stolen-riches story, a thrilling true-crime caper, and a sharp indictment of a world that allows scammers like Blay-Miezah to thrive. Catch Me if You Can meets Coming to America in this epic tale of one of the greatest scammers of all time. [T]his little-known story unfolds like Catch Me if You Can. Reading Anansi’s Gold is like watching a heist movie … all about improvisation, unforced error, unlikely escape. Yepoka Yeebo’s riveting Anansi’s Gold traces the outlines of Blay-Miezah’s life, shedding light on how he perpetrated his deceptions for years while living in incredible opulence. The author delves into archives across the Atlantic, digs up criminal proceedings and conducts interviews with victims and associates alike, in the process telling us not just about Blay-Miezah, but about the world that enabled him to thrive. Skillfully interweaves archival material, F.B.I. records, and interviews to recount the saga of [a] con man’s career, and to reflect on how lies can be leveraged in the creation of national histories. The sprawling story of Blay-Miezah’s outsize life and wayward career is told with mordant aplomb by first-time author Yepoka Yeebo … While [the book] reflects a daunting amount of research, it reads like a picaresque novel … Compelling. A wild tale . . . Yeebo’s substantial research — based on interviews, archives, government reports, and the like — is nothing less than awe inspiring, and her prose is careful and self-assured, often outraged, sometimes dryly amused . . . Anansi’s Gold is a fascinating story brilliantly told. In her thrilling new book, Yepoka Yeebo tells the jaw-dropping story of a man behind a scam called ‘one of the most fascinating – and lucrative – in modern history’ … the ever-proliferating grifter-lit bookshelf is on the verge of collapsing under its own weight, but Yeebo’s contribution to the category stands out … meticulously researched. A wild, juicy ride. Stylish and substantive, Yepoka Yeebo’s Anansi’s Gold is a non-fiction masterpiece, artfully weaving Blay-Miezah’s remarkable exploits into the fabric of history. Highly recommended. Rigorously researched and beautifully written. In this absorbing true crime narrative, Yeebo details the fascinating story of this audacious con artist. A wild, you-can’t-believe-it’s-true story that offers a portrait of not just a conniving huckster but also a portrait of Ghana in transition. While all of this happened in the 1970s and 1980s, the Ponzi scheme and the nefarious backdoor dealings feel disquietingly topical, making it an even more powerful read. Absorbing . . . A colorful, eye-opening account. Even as [Yeebo] catches readers up in what often reads like a breathless caper, the author takes care to ground them in what matters most: Ghana and its sadly ‘fragile’ history … Utterly absorbing. [A] thrilling true-crime debut that reverberates on the world stage . . . a story that any writer of heist flicks would envy . . . Readers will devour the gripping story of a lie that became a country's founding myth. Brilliantly illuminates the stranger-than-fiction career of Ghanaian fraudster John Ackah Blay-Miezah in this thrilling true-crime account. An illuminating story about greed and post-independence Ghana . . . Remarkable. Riveting . . . a welcome addition to the canon on great swindlers. Five stars. Fabulously entertaining. Richly entertaining … [Yeebo] has a sharp eye for droll detail [and] … deftly marshals a florid cast of characters. Yeebo [writes] in elegant prose, bringing complex detail, vivid background color, and an extensive cast into her compelling narrative … Pulls no punches. How long until this book becomes an HBO miniseries starring Isiah Whitlock Jr.? Only time will tell. A thrilling dive into the fact and fiction of a legendary scammer . . . exquisite, well-researched. Well-researched and engaging, [Anansi’s Gold] draws readers into the intricate web of lies about a trust-fund tall tale that spanned throughout the 1970s and ’80s and across the globe. Readers who enjoy true crime and stories about cons will quickly be absorbed into Yeebo’s first book. With Anansi’s Gold, Yepoka Yeebo has achieved something remarkable, brilliantly reframing the independence era under Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, while vividly illuminating the tawdriness of its aftermath with an unforgettable tale of corruption. This is African history and storytelling of the first order. This captivating story of a gifted con artist and his abettors is not only a sheer pleasure to read, but also a profound inquiry into how a lie becomes a legend. Yepoka Yeebo contends with a history shrouded in forgetting and a protagonist who trailed falsehoods in his wake. Her tenacious reporting and relentless pursuit of truth are nothing short of heroic. An unflinching look at history that illuminates both the past and the present. Meticulously and impressively researched, Anansi’s Gold is a sharply written and highly engaging account of Blay-Miezah’s life, of politics and society in Ghana, and of the rapaciousness and cruelty of colonization and of external involvement in Africa. An essential work by a great writer. Anansi’s Gold is as gripping as a heist movie, with a sparkling cast and a plot that is stranger than fiction. Yepoka Yeebo tells a tale from another time, but in an era of fake news and too-good-to-be-true cryptocurrency scams, it feels thrillingly contemporary. This hugely important and riveting book tells a true story of avarice and ambition that is centered on Ghana but reveals a web of lies and deceit on a vast international scale. At the heart of this utterly compelling narrative is a theme of real urgency today: the political and social dangers and the terrible harm caused by the deliberate falsification of the past. This astonishing book reveals not just Ghana’s history as you’ve never read it before, but some of the most important global events of the twentieth century. An impressive feat. Yeebo pulls off something near-magical here. She excavates an overlooked historical narrative as juicy as any true-crime blockbuster, where every detail is both fastidiously researched and completely over-the-top—one of Blay-Miezah’s major adversaries in his quest to scam? Former child star Shirley Temple Black, of course!—while also conveying how the colonial system nurtured and turbo-charged this dysfunction. Yeebo seamlessly moves from the fun of a classic con-man yarn . . . to an equally engrossing history of the West African state and its rocky path to postcolonial independence. Her sharpest point: that Blay-Miezah succeeded so handsomely by exploiting the stereotype of Africa as a source of ill-gotten wealth, ripe for the picking. Yeebo weaves the far-fetched tale of John Ackah Blay-Miezah, a Ghanaian grifter responsible for a truly massive con . . . Yeebo uses this outlandish yarn to paint a vivid picture of the early years of post-independence Ghanaian society and government. Incorporates Cold War politics, the U.S. civil rights movement and much more into a wholly engaging narrative — and one with consequences that are hard to shake when you’ve reached the final page. An unparalleled account of the legendary John Ackah Blay-Miezah. 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