We’re thrilled that Liaquat Ahamed will join us for this year’s Opus & Olives in support of The Friends and libraries. In preparation for the big event, we asked Liaquat a few questions to help fans get to know him better. This is an #opusexclusive.
Tell us something people might not know about you.
My very first job was working in the fruit and vegetable section of the food halls at Harrods, the famous department store in London—a long way, geographically and otherwise, from writing books about 19th-century financial panics.
What is one thing about your book you are proud of and why?
I’m proud that 1873 has turned out to be more than a history book — it’s become a live reference point for people trying to make sense of today’s AI boom. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, actually called it ‘the book to be read’ on a recent earnings call. Watching readers—including people actually running the companies involved—pick up on the resemblance between the 1870s railroad-building frenzy and the trillions now being poured into AI infrastructure is about as gratifying as it gets for a work of history.
Tell us what you love about libraries.
Large parts of both my books were written in the reading rooms of some great libraries—the New York Society Library, the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, the LA Public Library. There’s something about that atmosphere—the quiet, the sense of other people quietly absorbed in their own work—that I find genuinely inspiring.
Meet Liaquat and the rest of our bestselling lineup on October 11 at the RiverCentre in downtown Saint Paul!
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