Sebastian Faulks captures the pulse of pre-financial crisis London in this sweeping seven-day narrative set one week before Christmas 2007. Across a diverse cast of characters—a hedge fund manager orchestrating a career-defining trade, a newly arrived Polish footballer, an underemployed lawyer, a student drawn into Islamist ideology, a cynical book reviewer, and a cannabis-addicted schoolboy—Faulks weaves together private ambitions and public anxieties. Each life intersects in unexpected ways as the city counts down to the holiday, revealing the fractured dreams and hidden tensions beneath London's surface.
