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Ten Lives

How What We Have Shapes Who We Are

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Ten Lives

Written by: Mona Chalabi
Narrated by: Mona Chalabi, Fabian Cook Jr, Barton Caplan, Isuri Wijesundara, Anna Caputo, Marwan Salama, Adenrele Ojo, Patty Nieman, Tabitha Walters, Charles Linshaw, Erin Tripp, Richard Suarez
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About this listen

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.

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

‘I lapped Ten Lives up . . . captivating, beautiful, demystifying’ KATHY BURKE

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?

'A perfect combination of human stories and visualisations of the data that rules all our lives. Our ability to imagine is shaped by these numbers' DAVID BYRNE

‘Revolutionary. I was riveted from start to finish’ ALISON BECHDEL

© Mona Chalabi 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Americas Anthropology Social Classes & Economic Disparity Sociology United States
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Critic Reviews

Deliciously original . . . a dazzling mix of journalism, data visualisation and memoir [that] is both a joy to read and a serious provocation . . . Ten Lives is a riveting exemplar of financial transparency . . . an exhilarating antidote to obfuscation and evasiveness of every kind. She loathes all “word smush” that disguises reality, and her own prose is succinct, blunt and sinewy . . . Considering its bedrock is hard numerical data, Ten Lives is a deeply affecting book . . . a brilliant, radical argument, delivered with ingenuity and panache (Rachel Clarke)
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)
An astonishing book. Chalabi’s taboo-busting transparency about peoples’ financial lives is revolutionary enough. But it’s the pellucid clarity of her data visualizations that will really change how you see things. I was riveted from start to finish (ALISON BECHDEL)
I lapped Ten Lives up in two sittings. Mona Chalabi’s writing is captivating, and her data illustrations are both beautiful and demystifying. A fascinating, compelling read (KATHY BURKE)
Brilliant, deeply moving. A radical idea superbly carried out, like sitting down with a wise, funny and well-informed friend who is bracingly and bravely honest. I wolfed it down (MARK HADDON)
A perfect combination of human stories with visualizations of the data that rules all our lives. Our ability to imagine is shaped by these numbers (DAVID BYRNE)
An exploration of wealth, class and ever-widening income inequality [from] the Pulitzer-prize-winning data journalist and illustrator – known for her ability to translate dry statistics into simple visuals that elucidate societal realities with thunderbolt clarity
Mona Chalabi transforms raw data into a deeply human tapestry. Ten Lives is a fresh, creative and extraordinarily moving unpicking of our relationship with money. It cuts through the shame and silence surrounding class, income and wealth to deliver a clarion call for honesty and connection (KATE PICKETT, author of The Good Society)
This [is a] brilliant, essential and riveting book, which I guarantee will be like nothing else you have read
Mona Chalabi reveals with frank, engaging precision what we're all really wondering about. Utterly satisfying, informative and funny (LIANA FINCK, author of Let There Be Light)
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