In powerful and diamond-sharp prose, Helen Dunmore writes a Dickensian story of two brothers who come from nowhere and want everything. Paul and Johnnie are born twelve years apart, in a one-bedroom flat in Barking. Their ascent to money and power looks easy from a distance, but it burns those who get too close. When Paul marries Louise, Johnnie is part of the contract, while their daughter, Anna, is tangled in it from birth. Paul deals in the development of contaminated land; self-destructive, seductive Johnnie deals in crime. When Johnnie has to get out of the country, Louise goes with him. This has been her story, too, right from the beginning, and she's going to tell it in all its crookedness, force and tenderness.
