The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff & the Death of Trust by Diana Henriques

For years I have been fascinated by "the Madoff affair."  Kind of like not being able to look away from the train wreck.  I have read several books and many newspaper articles about it but this is by far the best explanation of what and how it all happened. Diana Henriques is a senior financial writer for the New York Times and has covered the story from the very beginning.  What I appreciate most in this book is that it puts this the biggest and longest running Ponzi scheme in history in context of the times and gives insight as to how so many, many people came to be taken in by Bernie Madoff.  While this book helps me understand the people who believed in him--his family, the people who worked with and for him, the people who trusted him with the savings of a lifetime--and were finally betrayed by him,  I am still completely unable to understand how someone could betray everyone, literally everyone, in his life.