Unable to work on his novel about liverpool's slave trade, benson is teaching creative writing and wandering the city. the pupils who bring him their fantasies are a sad, dispossessed group with varying degrees of literary talent. caught up in a series of bizarre events, benson nevertheless finds his own imagination sparked by an encounter with two old army colleagues: thompson, down-and-out and homeless; and slater, a fabulously wealthy entrepreneur. in trying to heal old wounds, benson unleashes a plan that just may blow up in his face. "there is a violent resolution to this obsessive and provocative novel that examines the abscesses and abysses beneath the violence of urban life and offers a quixotic personal answer." -- the times [london] "fine descriptive writing and spirited humanity." -- the guardian published for the first time in the united states booker prize-winning author of sacred hunger