Short Change

392 pages. Lisa Soames is 21, 4'10 tall, lives with her ailing father in Essex, and is h alf-heartedly looking for a job. Turning up for an interview at a major Japanese investment bank wearing a turquoise jacket, yellow socks and red patent leather lace-up shoes, she doesn't rate her chances of being picked as a graduate train ee very highly. But somehow or other, she's offered the job. Thrown into the d eep end as a dealer working in a hostile, sexist environment, she quickly learns there's really not much to it, despite the swagger of her male colleagues, and what's more, she can make a huge amount of money. And once she learns how to dea l with her Japanese managers, and most importantly a new recruit named Frank (af ter his penchant for singing Frank Sinatra songs when he's drunk) who seems to b e interested in more than her business skills, she thinks she's on a roll.