Followers of Wang Anyi's work cannot stop raving about the way she has evolved since 1976. That was when her first short stories, based on her time spent as a cellist in a cultural troupe in Xuzhou, then a soot-dusted town in Jiangsu province, were written.

When Michael Berry made up his mind to translate Wang Anyi's seminal work, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, he never imagined that at the end of the day he would have to resort to hard sell, as the book — awarded, televised, staged and generally accepted as a contemporary classic and an insightful account of 20th-century China — was a huge commercial hit.

In this era of globalization, goods and services are no longer constrained by national borders. With new items constantly being developed, many companies have shifted their focus toward developing their areas of core competitiveness.

Providing valuable new fuel for the argument that the time is ripe for a radical redesign of the global financial system, the book Finance for a Better World: The Shift Toward Sustainability illuminates the critical role the financial sector plays in the pursuit of the common good.