Brilliance on every page' Samantha Harvey
'A revelatory novel' Sunday Times
'So brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money' David Nicholls
'How do I get out of a reading slump? This is the book to do that' Rhianna Dhillon, BBC Radio 4

At first there seems to be no reason to deny the body what it wants, whenever it wants it.

Fifteen-year-old Istvan lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he is unfamiliar with the social rituals at school and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbour - a married woman close to his mother's age - as his only companion. As these encounters shift into a clandestine relationship, Istvan's life spirals out of control.

Years later, rising through the ranks from the army to the elite circles of London's super-rich, he navigates the twenty-first century's tides of money and power.

Torn between love, intimacy, status, and wealth, his newfound riches threaten to undo him completely.