Ten Lives

A revelatory exploration of the ways in which wealth – and the lack of it – shapes our lives, told through the stories of ten people, from award-winning data journalist and artist Mona Chalabi.

‘The most vivid and readable exploration of the wealth gap I’ve ever read’ BRIAN ENO

‘I lapped Ten Lives up . . . captivating, beautiful, demystifying’ KATHY BURKE

Anna has a comfortable life thanks to her husband – until he asks for a divorce. Kristina faces a choice between raising her child and finishing her degree; growing other people’s babies affords her a way out. Tiffany, meanwhile, earns so little that the farm which is her greatest reassurance is also her greatest stress. Then there’s Jacob: he earns vast sums in finance, yet he's less concerned about what he has than what he could lose. Ten people, ten different incomes – all somehow afraid.

For five years, Mona Chalabi followed their lives, documenting how wealth shaped their feelings, choices, identities and insecurities. Exposing our various delusions and our universal trappedness, Ten Lives asks how much is actually enough to be – and feel – safe? And can we ever know how much we need, or what we owe one another, until we are more honest about what we have?

'A perfect combination of human stories and visualisations of the data that rules all our lives. Our ability to imagine is shaped by these numbers' DAVID BYRNE

‘Revolutionary. I was riveted from start to finish’ ALISON BECHDEL

© Mona Chalabi 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026