Ten Lives: How What We Have Shapes Who We Are

by Mona Chalabi

A visually striking exploration of money—and the lack of it—in America told through the lives of ten individuals, from a Pulitzer Prize–winning data journalist and artist

“Astonishing . . . Chalabi’s taboo-busting transparency about peoples’ financial lives is revolutionary enough. But it’s the pellucid clarity of her data visualizations that will really change how you understand capitalism.”—Alison Bechdel, bestselling author of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Anna has a comfortable life in a mansion in Maine thanks to her husband (well, his parents, really) until he suddenly asks for a divorce. In Arizona, Hunter is a U.S. veteran, feeling ashamed about claiming disability benefits. Then there’s Levi, who is trying to pay off his debts from a gambling addiction, one social media video at a time. And Christian, stifled by his job at an Amazon warehouse before a union-organizing effort offers a way out for his comrades and his young kids. Ten people, ten different incomes, all of them afraid for their futures.

For five years, data journalist Mona Chalabi followed them all, documenting how wealth shaped their feelings, their choices, their identities, and their insecurities. She researched the data behind their taxes, groceries, inheritances, and so much more to understand the systems that keep people stuck. But then, she too found herself facing the same fears, when her mother’s sudden illness and subsequent medical bills threatened her own financial safety and made the questions she had been writing about all too real. How much money is enough? To live a “good” life? To protect the people you love in an emergency?

Interweaving her own story with those of her interviewees and illustrated throughout with the data visualizations for which Chalabi is renowned, Ten Lives asks how much wealth it takes to be safe in the United States. It explores how difficult it is for us to be honest and open about what we have and argues that until we get better at it, we will never be able to address the underlying problems that drive inequality and insecurity for us all.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

320 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication November 10, 2026

Reviews

[Tessa Hulls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read! This! Book! I just had the pleasure of blurbing an advance review copy, and it's the book I will be obnoxiously telling everyone about for the foreseeable future. This is my blurb: Ten Lives is a brilliant melding of rage, empathy, and tactical rigor that maps the emotional intimacy of income inequality. Chalabi has a rare ability to bring statistics to life, teasing out the human stories buried within data to illuminate uncomfortable societal truths. Ten Lives cuts cleanly through the numbers, sharpening how we see the world.

[Traci Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really cool. It is a fast easy read and is packed with stats and graphics that make it extra compelling. I loved the way the book is structured and the ways Chalabi organized her thinking and logic. There was a bit too much memoir in the book that I don't think we needed.

[Miriam T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah this is the kind of book you recommend to EVERYONE. I have always loved Mona’s work, the clarity of her visual storytelling, the way I am suddenly able to visualize and understand numbers like Bezos’ wealth for example. This book was that x10. I absolutely loved the way she weaved in her own family story, relationship to money and even the meta of her relationship to the subjects (and THEIR money) in this book itself. I think this is such a good format to acclimate yourself to money talks (it’s approachable, even funny) and I think this is the perfect way to bring up $$$ chats at the dinner table.