With the brio and intelligence for which he has been so widely praised, Justin Cartwright captures the life of an apparently ordinary Englishman - his marriage, his work, his sexual relationships and his connection to the events and sports of the world around him - until his day takes on the aspect first of a waking dream then of a true nightmare. Its horrifying conclusion, as Anthony Northleach runs into a south London prosititute, is shocking because the reader has come to see his story as both emblematic and savagely observant. Friendship, it seems, is all Anthony has left.