A “Can’t Put It Down” Novel that Brims with Insights into Negotiation, Strategy, and History

Here’s a book to engage and delight you. My friend and HBS colleague, Deepak Malhotra, recently shifted gears from his usual nonfiction output to somehow create The Peacemaker’s Code.* Our circles overlap a lot, so this may be old news to you, but if by chance it is not, I heartily recommend this novel to negotiation aficionados—and others—for fun and profit.

Along with my often-skeptical book group and many friends, I found this book to be an impossibly engaging read laced through with insights into negotiation, strategy, and what we can and should not learn from history. Most readers enthusiastically share this view: among glowing adjectives and favorable comparisons to Arthur C. Clarke, Carl Sagan, and Dan Brown, the 664 reviewers on Amazon give it 4.8 stars out of 5, while over 430 ratings on goodreads give it a 4.7. For audiobook fans like me, the truly excellent narrator hits all his marks with a 4.9 out of 5.

If you liked The Martian—the book, not the much weaker movie—you’ll see an analogy to The Peacemaker’s Code. Stranded alone on Mars, the protagonist of The Martian improvises his way back to earth by innovatively deploying unexpected scientific and engineering concepts to escape one fatal trap after another. Similarly, in a sort-of science fiction context, Deepak Malhotra writes his protagonist into seemingly impossible jams, then resourcefully reasons his way out by strategic, dealmaking, and historical acumen—but almost immediately plunges him into the next challenge to his creativity. I suspect you’ll enjoy matching wits before reading on. And lots to think about, admiringly, afterwards.

Have fun reading and let me know what you think!

*not (yet) in indie online bookstores