The Ballad of a Small Player is a 2014 novel by British writer Lawrence Osborne.

Set in the gambling casinos of Macau, it follows the fortunes of an English con man who passes himself off as a runaway Lord.

The novel was selected for numerous year's best novel lists, including the 100 Notable Books of 2014 in The New York Times,[1] by Neal Mukarjee in New Statesman, and by Ian Crouch in The New Yorker.

On The Omnivore, based on British press, the book received an "omniscore" of 5 out of 5.

"[4] A film adaptation for Netflix is currently in production directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) and starring Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter in April 2024.