Alfred White, a London park-keeper, rules his home with a mixture of ferocity and tenderness that has estranged his three children. But family ties are strong, and when Alfred collapses on duty one day, they rush to be with him. His daughter's partner, Elroy, a black social worker, is brought face to face with Alfred's younger son Dirk, who hates and fears all black people. The scene is set for violence, and Alfred's wife May is forced to choose between justice and kinship. This ground-breaking novel tackles the taboo subject of racial hatred, as it looks for the roots of violence within one British family.

'Courageous, honest, powerfully real.' The Times 'A transcendent work.' Daily Telegraph 'Intensely touching.' Financial Times 'Outstanding ... tender, sexy and alarming.' Jim Crace 'Gee is unflinching in her exploration of the causes and consequences of racism.' The Observer 'An audacious, ground-breaking condition-of-England novel that delves for the roots of xenophobic hatred and violence in the English hearth ... Its head-on scrutiny of the uglier face of fair Albion is the more impressive for its rarity in British fiction.' The Guardian 'A triumph of hope over despair, reconciliation over bitterness. A unashamedly contemporary novel that embraces the ideological and emotional chaos of our time.' The Independent 'A wonderfully perceptive, warm and wickedly humorous portrayal of a white working-class family. In this ground-breaking novel, Maggie Gee bravely and uniquely explores the nuances of racism from the perspective of the perpetrators, within the context of family relationships. The resulting work is a brilliant depiction of British society at the end of the twentieth century.' Bernadine Evaristo

Maggie Gee is the author of thirteen acclaimed novels, which have been translated into more than fourteen languages, including The Red Children, The White Family (shortlisted for the Orange and IMPAC prizes) and My Cleaner, and a memoir, My Animal Life. She is a Fellow and Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature, and a Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Gee was awarded an OBE in 2012 for her services to literature.