Twitter seems like a perfect start-up success story. In barely six years, a small group of young, ambitious programmers in Silicon Valley built an $11.5 billion business out of the ashes of a failed podcasting company. Today, Twitter boasts more than 200 million active users and has affected business, politics, media, and other fields in innumerable ways.

Now, Nick Bilton of the New York Times takes readers behind the scenes with a narrative that shows what happened inside Twitter as it grew at exponential speeds. This is a tale of betrayed friendships and high-stakes power struggles as the four founders—Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, and Noah Glass—went from everyday engineers to wealthy celebrities.

Bilton’s exclusive access and exhaustive investigative reporting—drawing on hundreds of sources, documents, and internal e-mails—have enabled him to write an intimate portrait of fame, influence, and power. He also captures the zeitgeist and global influence of Twitter, which has been used to help overthrow governments in the Middle East and disrupt the very fabric of the way people communicate.

Do you want to know what really happened in the tech bubble? How the real-estate boom started? How the world really operates? Can you handle the unvarnished, completely politically-incorrect truth? Don’t assume anything: come out on a TERRACE for a view you never imagined...

It’s the end of one century and the beginning of a new. Technological development has become a firestorm, both driving and driven by an economic boom such as the world has never seen. At the core of the inferno are the people whose lives are inextricably linked to the Silicon Valley and the city of San Francisco.

From the angry Asian-Hispanic beauty Angelina Sumana Ruiz, to the proud, WASP, mega-lawyer Preston Elliott Hughes, Jr.; from the struggling single mother SandyMae Miller, to the egotistical New Economy CEO John Dorman; from Rasheyd, the Saudi Arabian businessman, to the generation Y, internet porn king Marcus Caughman; from the lowly Mexican cleaning woman, Maria, to the giant of the global construction industry and last leader of a powerful family dynasty, Samuel McAndrews; and more... they frantically fan the flames and attempt to extract what they can from the ensuing whirlwind.

Gangbangers, environmentalists, clerics, accountants, activists, bureaucrats, socialites, lobbyists, and others join them all in a swirling, chaotic, fin de siècle, ka boom! When the dust settles, the result is there for any eye who wishes to behold. Together they have built the next layer of mankind’s progress: A TERRACE ON THE TOWER OF BABEL.

Set in the San Francisco Bay Area, with related scenes in New York, London, Washington D.C., Riyadh, and Ibiza, A TERRACE ON THE TOWER OF BABEL is a fast-moving, fascinating and boldly rollicking tale of epic proportions full of romance, intrigue, philosophy, history, science, humor, thrills, triumph, and defeat. It is stark in its reality – frightening at times, comforting at others, rife with controversy yet mortared with sympathetic accord. Delve deep into its provocative and compelling depths or float along at the surface and enjoy it in either case – this is a story you’ll never forget!