Charlie Wales is a young man who wants everything. Fresh from University he's seduced by the excitement of a new life in London that promises sex, sophistication and lots of money. There's Vero, the beautiful French girl

who might finally fall for him. Unemployed, there's the lure of art but also the promise of fast money in the City. And his friends are all spiralling into a world of drink, drugs and selfish greed. But as the choices begin to tear him apart, there's also the danger that all the things he desires are on the brink of crashing around him...

This debut novel, written by a 30-year-old bond trader, does not merely pick over the carcass of the financial markets in the wake of the recent crash. It is also a heartbreaking love story, a withering study of the years of excess, and a touching contemplation of how good people end up doing terrible things.