Cities survive by heading West in pursuit of the setting sun. But not London. With the approach of the millennium, a new tribe staked its claim to the East End, and the swirling currents of the city changed. These are not the forces that have brought Mia Taylor east, but she understands them. Her own story is one of accident, the treachery of fate. But it has cast her unwittingly in a bigger story, a modern legend of migration and change. As gripping as any thriller, Matthew d'Ancona's impressively accomplished first novel is a vivid portrait of the way we live now. It deals with the most serious contemporary issues - politics and racism, poverty and preposterous wealth, corruption and betrayal. It is peopled with the myriad characters who inhabit, rule and are ruled by the extraordinary city of London, and London is itself a central character. At its heart is a troubled, questing woman who hopes to find herself by going east. show more