The Liar’s Ball

The Liar’s Ball: The Extraordinary Saga of How One Building Broke the World’s Toughest Tycoons by Vicky Ward is a nonfiction account that explores the high-stakes, high-ego world of New York City real estate through the dramatic bidding war over the iconic General Motors Building. Ward, a former Vanity Fair contributing editor, uses more than 200 interviews with major real estate figures—including Donald Trump, Mort Zuckerman, and Harry Macklowe—to reveal how this trophy property became the center of fierce competition, secret deals, lies, and betrayals. The book details the rise and fall of powerful developers, their strategies to gain control of the building, and how the greed, ambition, and rivalries of these moguls helped shape—and ultimately shake—the real estate market before and during the 2008 financial crisis.