Whitcoulls Recommends: See How They Fall and Careless People

See How They Fall by Rachel Paris. The uber-rich Turner family operate a luxury goods empire from Sydney, where their venal self interest knows no bounds. When their patriarch dies, the heirs call a meeting where things go terribly wrong and their cocooned world becomes the subject of a major police enquiry. Skye married into this money but as things unfold, finds she can’t believe what they’re capable of. This is truly a world you want no part of, but as the 1 percenters increasingly rule over us, it’s a staggering insight into how some of them might have got there. 

Careless People by Sarah Wynn Williams. Sarah is a New Zealander who spent seven years working at Facebook/Meta – a job she entered with high ideals, believing Facebook would be a force for good. What she found, though, was a company where revenue was everything, whose leaders got away with terrible behaviour and who were aware of the disastrous aspects of many of its policies but chose to do nothing. The absence of any kind of moral compass is staggering. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News TALKSEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
And Joe McKenzie joins us. Now, good morning, good morning.
You've got a couple of fabulous books for us this morning,
great reads, both by New Zealand authors.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
I know, isn't that great?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yeah. The first one is called See How They Fall
by Rachel Parris, who's an Auckland lawyer I believe, who's
also managed to turn out this terrifically entertaining book set
in Sydney. And I'm told that she said the reason
for setting it there was because there aren't any really
ghastly wealthy families in New Zealand, and this lot really are.
So they're Australian.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
She does toxic rich people very well.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
She doesn't. Yes. So the Turner family run a luxury
goods empire and they're absolutely rolling in it. And when
the patriarch suddenly dies, the heirs call a meeting, and
it's not just any meeting. They go off to a
fabulous luxury resort for this thing, and while they're there,
something really horrible happens and they suddenly find that this
nicely cushioned world that they live in is being invaded

(01:05):
by the police who are mounting an inquiry. And one
of the characters is Skuy, who married into all this money,
but she simply can't believe what they're capable of. And
as a result of that meeting, her sister in law
is dead, her daughter is critically ill in ICU, and
her husband is trying to have her declared insane. You
wouldn't want to have anything to do with any of

(01:26):
these people, but as we all know, the one percenters
are increasingly in charge, and I reckon this is a
good insight into how some of them got there.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
I was sent this book at summer time and I
got a little sneak read of it and I started
it and I literally didn't stop. Yah, you don't put
it down. You had to finish it. And then it
went around the whole family and everyone was exactly the same.
Tell Me a little Bit about Careless People by Sarah
Wynn Williams.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
So, as you said at the start, is also a local.
She's a trained lawyer who became a diplomat. She worked
at the un I think she was involved in environmental policy,
and she gave all that up when she realized that
after all of the policy meetings and the boring stuff
that they was ending their life doing at the un
the movie Finding Nemo had more impact on the environment

(02:11):
than anything that they were doing. And she was aware
of Facebook and really liked the possibilities of it, particularly
after the christ Church earthquake when her family were affected
by it, and she could see that it became such
an incredible community tool for people to connect and offer
assistance and keep each other going in the wake of

(02:32):
something awful like that. So she went knocking on their
door and said, please give me a job, and they
said no, no, no, no, And eventually, after quite a
long time, they did, and she became their director of
Global Policy and had quite a reach around the world.
She ended up being there for seven years, but she
had the scales taken from her eyes reasonably quickly as
she realized that this was all about money for these

(02:55):
people and their lifestyles and their handle on power. And
when it became clear that, for instance, the advertisers on
the platform were able to target very vulnerable young people,
or that the platform could be used in all sorts
of pretty nefarious ways, she tried to make change, which
was resisted at every level, and in the end she left.

(03:16):
I loved this book. I believed every word. I've always believed.
I don't use Facebook. I've always believed that there's something
fundamentally scary about it, and she's really explained.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
It for me. And she writes so well. She writes
with humor, and she tells a good yarn. That's what
I mean.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
And the great irony, of course, is that when the
book was suddenly published, because the announcement of the book
coming was only a few days prior to its actual
release Meta, which of course is Facebook's new parent name,
they took action to stop her promoting it or speaking
about it publicly in any way. And of course these
guys put themselves up as the guardians of free speech, and.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
It ended up at the top of the New York
Best Signs. So did there we go? That's what happens. Yes,
though we had her all booked one to talk to her,
and we're hoping that at some point we will be
able to catch up with her and she will be
able to speak about the book. Look, these are two
fabulous yarns. Of course, the Easter holidays are coming. If
you've got a chance to take a break. Two really
good options for you. I recommend it that both of

(04:22):
us absolutely see how they fall by Rachel Paris and
Careless People by Sarah Williams. Talk next week, John.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
See you then.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.