Ten Lives

byMona Chalabi

How What We Have Shapes Who We Are

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A revelatory exploration of the ways in which wealth – and the lack of it – shapes our lives, told through the stories of ten people, from award-winning data journalist and artist Mona Chalabi.

Anna has a comfortable life thanks to her husband – until he asks for a divorce. Kristina faces a choice between raising her child and finishing her degree; growing other people’s babies affords her a way out. Tiffany, meanwhile, earns so little that the farm which is her greatest reassurance is also her greatest stress. Then there’s Jacob: he earns vast sums in finance, yet he's less concerned about what he has than what he could lose. Ten people, ten different incomes – all somehow afraid.

For five years, Mona Chalabi followed their lives, documenting how wealth shaped their feelings, choices, identities and insecurities. Exposing our various delusions and our universal trappedness, Ten Lives asks how much is actually enough to be – and feel – safe? And can we ever know how much we need, or what we owe one another, until we are more honest about what we have?

‘The most vivid and readable exploration of the wealth gap I’ve ever read’ BRIAN ENO

‘I lapped Ten Lives up – a fascinating, compelling read’ KATHY BURKE

‘Astonishing. I was rivetted from start to finish’ ALISON BECHDEL

© Mona Chalabi 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

This book explores how deeply relevant inequality is - how it moulds our minds and bends our moralities. It's the most vivid and readable exploration of the wealth gap I’ve ever read. Anyone who cares about a better future should read this

BRIAN ENO

About Mona Chalabi

Mona Chalabi is an award-winning writer and illustrator. Her work has earned her a Pulitzer Prize, honorary fellowships at the British Science Association and the Royal Society for the Arts, an Emmy nomination, and recognition from the Royal Statistical Society. In recent years, her art has been exhibited at the Tate, the Smithsonian Design Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum. Her writing and illustrations have been featured in the Guardian, New Yorker and New York Review of Books.
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Details
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • ISBN: 9781807849320
  • Price: £14.00
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