"The compelling story of an acclaimed journalist and New York Times bestselling author's ongoing struggle with epilepsy--his torturous decision to keep his condition a secret to avoid discrimination, and his ensuing decades-long battle to not only survive, but to thrive. Written with brutal and affecting honesty, Kurt Eichenwald, who was diagnosed with epilepsy as a teenager, details the abuses he faced while incapacitated post-seizure, the discrimination he fought that almost cost him his education and employment, and the darkest moments when he contemplated suicide as the only solution to ending his physical and emotional pain. He recounts how medical incompetence would have killed him but for the heroic actions of a brilliant neurologist and the friendship of two young men who assumed part of the burden of his struggle. Ultimately, Eichenwald's is an inspirational tale, showing how a young man facing his own mortality on a daily basis could rise from the depths of despair to the heights of unimagined success"--

It was the summer of '81 and the brokers at the shabby offices of Bache & Co. couldn't have been happier: After years of their business being tainted by one scandal after another, the beleaguered firm was being purchased by one of America's most respected institutions, Prudential Insurance. Soon rechristened as Prudential-Bache Securities, the brokerage firm would continued the trust needed to attract thousands of new investors eager to put their savings into rock-solid investments. Yet as billions of dollars began pouring in from around the country, Pru-Bache executives and their outside sponsors of investment deals were secretly eating into the very cash Pru-Bache was supposed to be protecting - and indeed growing - for their customers. As their brokers were touting financially shaky limited partnership deals as safe and solid investments, everyone from elderly retirees to sophisticated investors was being duped, with hundreds of thousands of them losing their homes, their retirement funds, or massive chunks of their savings. Meanwhile, executives at Pru-Bache and their colleagues were enjoying lavish party vacations, exorbitant personal gifts, and business trips aboard ships like the QE2 - all paid for by the investor capital with which they were entrusted. By the time regulators could pin anything on Pru-Bache, what began as the comeback story of the '80s had become the most destructive scandal Wall Street had ever known. In Serpent on the Rock, award-winning reporter Kurt Eichenwald, who investigated the scandal for the New York Times, tells the whole devastating story of the rot behind the dignified facade of Wall Street. With intricate detail of the crimes and lies behind the "rock-solid" image, Eichenwald re-creates the colorful characters who were the primary enablers of the massive scandal the company is still reeling from today.