This was a powerful and intriguing story, following Ben, the son of a prominent Irish banker who has led a life on entitlement and indulgence, until outside forces start to dismantle his life. It is told through his recollections during a spell in rehab, looking back over the preceding months.

After attending an expensive and exclusive private school, he had passed on to university to study English. Thereafter, despite a fairly mediocre degree, he had enrolled as a postgraduate, working on a thesis about the early works of James Joyce. This had, in fact, been cover for a life of extraordinary ease but no focus, funded by a generous monthly allowance from his father. This comes to an abrupt end when his father is arrested, accused of having misappropriated around six hundred million Euros. With his father’s assets frozen, Ben finds his life of luxury is over. He does, however, fall on his feet, taking up with a beautiful aspiring actress called Clio. This coincides with his descent into a life of intense hedonism, leading to his increasing dependence on drugs.

It is while he is sinking to the deepest of these depths that he encounters someone from his old school who appears to have been immensely successful in the intervening period, working in the obscure avenues of international banking. He persuades Ben to join him and a handful of other fellows from the same school, in a property development venture in Serbia where they envisage the potential to make a commercial killing as a consequence of a loophole in the legislation. Ben is initially hesitant, but lured by what appears to be limitless access to money. The novel then moves between Serbia and Dublin, with the bankers’ experiences as they meet their very shady Serbian counterparts interspersed with flashbacks to events in Dublin just before Ben flew out to Serbia.

The plot is very carefully managed, with surprising revelations emerging throughout. This was one of those strange novels without any particularly appealing characters – even Ben is far from sympathetic, willing, by his own admission, to trick or abandon those who have tried to help him. That does not detract from the novel’s appeal however, and I found myself completely immersed and engaged in it right from the start. ( )