From the author of The Gustav Sonata Lev is on his way from Eastern Europe to Britain, seeking work. Behind him loom the figures of his dead wife, his beloved young daugher and his outrageous friend Rudi who - dreaming of the wealthy West - lives largely for his battered Chevrolet. Ahead of Lev lies the deep strangeness of the British: their hostile streets, their clannish pubs, their obsession with celebrity. London holds out the alluring possibility of friendship, sex, money and a new career and, if Lev is lucky, a new sense of belonging... Over a million Rose Tremain books sold `A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I `There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times `Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times `Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie `Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian