The Economist reviewed Too Big to Fail: How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System — and Themselves in this week’s edition, calling it “too good to put down….It is the story of the actors in the most extraordinary financial spectacle in 80 years, and it is told brilliantly. Other blow-by-blow accounts are in the works. It is hard to imagine them being this riveting.” Here is the full review.

It is meticulously researched, drawing on interviews with more than 200 of those who participated directly in the events it covers, including their handwritten notes and tape-recordings of critical meetings. The result is a compelling reconstruction of the drama surrounding the government seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman’s collapse, the rescue of American International Group (AIG), the subsequent market pandemonium and the shoring-up of big banks’ capital with public funds.