This is the Book Review Podcast and I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times Book Review.

Yes, we are part way through August but we're coming to you nonetheless with a few thoughts on

interesting books that are coming out this month. I spoke with Sarah Lyle, a Times writer at large

in our thriller columnist about the new book Whalefall, a unique thriller about a teenage scuba diver

who gets swallowed by a sperm whale. But first, Jumana Kateeben, editor of the Book Review,

gives us a rapid fire look at August books. We'll turn to that conversation now.

Jumana, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you for having me on, Gilbert.

So you're here to talk about August. You're here to talk about a couple of great books that are

coming out this month. And the first one is Belongs and that great subcategory of

grifters. Oh, historical grifters. Grifters through time and space. Yeah. This is Anonsi's

Gold by Yipoka Yipu. The author is freelance journalist and she does a lot of work out of Ghana.

And this is a story of a swindler that I had never heard of. He's a Ghanaian con man named John

Akubli Mesa. You had very humble beginnings and managed to become one of the wealthiest man in

Africa during his time. And he was shameless in who he went after. He knows politicians,

businessmen, widows literally took a widow's last sense out of her. And he had this kind of

shameless pitch that of course now seems too good to be true. But he went after this with such

abandon that he was able to really build this life for himself and evade capture.

So is your amount of what was the pitch? Well, one of his favorite stories was that he told people

that he and Kwame in Krumah who was Ghana's president. They were very close. He was one of the

president's confidants. And the president on his deathbed told him I've stored all sorts of

gold bars and Swiss accounts. And here's where you find them. I was almost like buried treasure.

Of course, nothing like this happened. But he was leveraging this into telling people you're

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