It is the not too distant future. The Gulf Stream has ceased and the climate is plunged into turmoil. England has changed.

Civil Servant Quinn is dispatched to conduct an audit on a remote plot of land up North, designated for a brand new model town. But he swiftly realises how inflammatory his presence is when confronted by those on the sharp end of the new reality: Owen, a suicidal farmer whose livestock has been destroyed after a slew of viruses; Winston, a disillusioned journalist with a gallery of photos that show the truth about the site; and Pollard, the local man of God whose faith is up for sale.

But it is Anna, Quinn's sometime girlfriend, in charge of filling the dead cattle pits, who faces the deepest abyss of all. As the heavens open once again, the mountains of toxic soil that surround the site slowly begin to shift, and Quinn will face the ultimate test of his integrity.

Robert Edric was born in 1956. His novels includeWinter Garden(1985 James Tait Black Prize winner),A New Ice Age(1986 runner-up for the 1986 Guardian Fiction Prize),A Lunar Eclipse, The Earth Made of Glass, Elysium, In Desolate Heaven, The Sword Cabinet, The Book of the Heathen(shortlisted for the 2001 WH Smith Literary Award),Peacetime(longlisted for the Booker Prize 2002),Gathering the Water(longlisted for the Booker Prize 2006),The Kingdom of AshesandIn Zodiac Light,which was shortlisted for the Dublin Impac Prize 2010.

A stunning novel from one of the UK's finest literary writers>