Winner of the Orange Prize

Paul and Johnnie are brothers, born twelve years apart in a one-bedroom flat in Barking. their climb to money and power looks easy from a distance, but those who get too close know what it costs. When Paul marries Louise, Johnnie is part of the contract from the beginning, and 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, an almost Dickensian one, and shes ready to tell it in all its power and passion.