content: What a disappointment! As a big fan of Jim Crace (particularly Being Dead), it pains me to say it, but large tracts of this book are an author on autopilot. Let's take only a couple of examples: 1) the descriptions of the physical aspects of the city Lix and co inhabit, and 2) the, at times, totalatarian behavior of the "authorities". Both were (over) employed in his earlier novel Arcadia, and, to see them re-appear here after a gap of some years suggests an author running out of ideas (or filling in space). As Crace has rightly been applauded in the past as one of the most inventive modern British authors, let's hope this is a once-off.