The Merchant King by Shakir Husain

There are few books that I remember so clearly 5 weeks after I read it. Mind you , this book has so many names and so many overlapping events that at first it was really difficult to imagine I will finish this book.i

The Merchant King starts with introducing Saqr , the young prince of Balad and his ambitious dream of making his tiny island into a self sustained nation. And he does make it happen though the after effects are nothing he or any reader would have imagined.

Though I read quite a lot of varied books and topics , I had never been able to understand much about politics and economics or how both are interlinked. But this book made a lot of these matters a bit clear to me.By taking the reader through the process of how a nation gets recognition , how the infrastructure , the policies , the relations are formed over time. There are forces , both good and bad that influence a nation's growth and how important it is to have a strong and wise leader to guide the nation through this phase.

The book very subtly shows the true colors and nuiances of every section of society - the politicians , the page 3 class , the bankers , the international embassadors, the news people , the new people who migrate to new nations , the developed and other developing nations reactions and maby more sections. i was amazed how everythibg fot so well in the plot without being overwhelming, apart from the names of people and organizations. 
The names used are a block some times 'cause they are hard to remember and follow. 
But same time , the abbreviations of the organizations are funny and sarcastic too.


Overall , 
I enjoyed the book and would reccomend it to all.