01
A date approaches.
Twenty days. One decision. Everything changes.
A novel inspired by real events
CollateralCrisis
Four women.
Four destinies.
One narrator.
Millions of lives.
The hidden story
There is more than one story.
Every clue is visible. Not every clue is obvious.
02
A professor disappears.
A brilliant teacher asks questions no one wants to answer.
03
A letter is never sent.
Some words remain unspoken. Some truths are buried.
04
A banker begins to doubt.
What if the system he trusted was built on lies?
05
Someone tells this story.
But she never says who she is.
Can you discover who is really telling this story?
The Novel
Four places.
Intertwined lives.
Los Angeles. London. Athens. Kenya.
Four lives, thousands of miles apart. Twenty days before a financial decision changes everything.
“The numbers explain what happened. The words reveal what it cost.”
A thriller about people, not markets.
Behind every balance sheet, every index and every political decision, there are lives. Collateral Crisis follows those lives as separate stories begin to collide.
Meet the characters →
The Characters
Ordinary people.
Extraordinary choices.
Los Angeles
Sarah
Can a teenager understand a war with no soldiers?
London
Karen
What happens when numbers begin to have faces?
Kenya
Sophie
Can humanitarian work still change anything?
Athens
Rinaé
How do you keep dreaming when a country collapses?London
Alane
How long can ambition silence conscience?Los Angeles
Mr Canon
What can a teacher leave behind when time is running out?Inspired by real events
Fiction opens the door.
Reality waits behind it.
LE MONDE DU POLAR
“A Choral Novel of Remarkable Density”
A FOUR-SETTING FRESCO, FROM LOS ANGELES TO THE DADAAB CAMP
“Saren Riso does not build a single narrative; he weaves a network.”
THE TWENTIETH, THE DATE THAT PULLS THE ENTIRE NOVEL TOWARD IT
“There is a center of gravity, and everything converges toward it.”
A GALLERY OF VOICES THAT ALMOST NEVER MEET
“Saren Riso gives each character a share of shadow and a share of dignity.”
THE SMALL OBJECTS THAT CARRY THE STORY’S MEMORY
“The device creates a rare pleasure in reading.”
TRANSMISSION AS THE NOVEL’S TRUE THREAD
“What Saren Riso depicts is the slow circulation of an intangible legacy.”
“A generous novel, demanding without being austere, thoroughly researched without becoming didactic, one that trusts the intelligence of its readers.”
— Manuel Meszarovits, Le Monde du Polar · translated from French
Discover his analysis →Early review
“What struck me most about this novel is its deeply human dimension. It stays with you long after you’ve turned the last page.”
Clara — French bookstagrammer
Press
Everything needed to tell the story.
About the author
I never wanted to write a novel about finance.
I wanted to write a novel about people.
Saren Riso writes at the point where intimate destinies meet the great crises of our time.
Collateral Crisis