Longlisted for the FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year 'Smart and agile ... Invaluable' New York Times

Longlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 'Readers looking for good news will love this book. Jonathan Tepperman makes a compelling case, in lively and personal prose, that strong leaders willing to forsake political orthodoxy for good ideas can actually solve the toughest problems the world faces.' Ann-Marie Slaughter, author of Unfinished Business The world’s most intractable problems solved: ambitious lessons in leadership and hope from free-thinkers and innovators who have tackled our biggest challenges From immigration reform to energy resources, from political paralysis to inequality and extremism, we are beset by a raft of huge and seemingly insurmountable issues. The daily newspapers, the rolling 24-hour television news, portray a world in terminal decline. What goes under-reported are the success stories. Here, taking ten of the most knotty issues we face today, Jonathan Tepperman examines unsung individuals’ bold and innovative attempts against all odds and expectations to solve some of the important problems governments have struggled with for decades. Each chapter tells the story of one government that’s found a way to avoid the snares that entangle most of the others. The solutions described in the book aren’t speculative: they’ve all already been tried, and they work. Controversial, provocative but always stimulating, Tepperman here offers a powerful, data-driven case for optimism. Written with flair and an infectious exuberance, The Fix is a book to restore hope to the pessimistic, and offer both practical advice and inspiration in a time of relentless bad news.

"Engagingly written … The Fix makes an acute point in its attempt to recover a lost sense of optimism" - Financial Times

"The timing of this book could not be better … Smart and agile … A smorgasbord of small think: practical, microcosmic solutions to big problems in sometimes surprising places … Though the book is not long, Mr. Tepperman goes into impressive detail in each case study and delivers his assessments in clear, pared-down prose, careful to describe most of his success stories as experiments that could still fail. The Fix is not clip job either: Mr. Tepperman spend considerable time flying around the globe for his own research ... An invaluable handbook" - New York Times

"‘Tepperman searches for the formula by which [political leaders] have remedied serious problems. The cases are valuable in their own right … But for present purposes it is Tepperman’s conclusion that is valuable: eschew ideology; focus on pragmatic solutions to core problems; adjust as you go, but be as tough as is necessary’" - Times Literary Supplement