Through chance, luck and choice, one man?s life takes him from a modest
apartment in Hungary to the elite society of London ? in this captivating new
novel about the forces that make and break our lives. Fifteen-year-old István
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,
István?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.