Nach einer kurzen Affäre mit einer Arbeitskollegin findet sich Keith, ein Sozialarbeiter, allein in einer Wohnung wieder, nur ein paar Straßen von seiner ehemaligen Frau und seinem jugendlichen Sohn entfernt. Als zu seinen familiären Sorgen noch Probleme auf der Arbeit hinzukommen, fühlt sich Keith erstmals als Schwarzer in der englischen Gesellschaft verwundbar. Annabelle, die Frau, die ihn vor 25 Jahren heiratete, beobachtet wie Keith mehr und mehr die Kontrolle über sein Leben verliert. Schließlich weiß sie, dass sie, trotz ihrer Verletzung, als Paar wieder zusammen kommen müssen, um ihren Sohn vor Schlimmerem zu bewahren. Denn dieser gerät immer tiefer in den Strudel der Straßenbanden und einer Welt, die ihnen vollkommen fremd ist ... Ein literarisches Juwel von Caryl Phillips.

Informationen zum Autor Caryl Phillips is the author of numerous acclaimed works of fiction and non-fiction, including the novels Crossing the River (shortlisted for the Booker Prize 1993) and A Distant Shore (winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2004). Phillips has won the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the PEN Open Book Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, as well as being named the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 1992 and one of the Granta Best of Young British Writers 1993. He has also written for television, radio, theatre and film. Klappentext Social worker Keith, separated from his wife and their teenage son, is floundering in a world of fraught sexual politics, parental responsibilities and class expectations. Zusammenfassung Social worker Keith, separated from his wife and their teenage son, is floundering in a world of fraught sexual politics, parental responsibilities and class expectations.

Vorwort
A major novel about the multicultural Britain of today, by 'One of the literary giants of our time' - New York Times

Autorentext
Caryl Phillips is the author of numerous acclaimed works of fiction and non-fiction, including the novels Crossing the River (shortlisted for the Booker Prize 1993) and A Distant Shore (winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2004). Phillips has won the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the PEN Open Book Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, as well as being named the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 1992 and one of the Granta Best of Young British Writers 1993. He has also written for television, radio, theatre and film.

Klappentext

Social worker Keith, separated from his wife and their teenage son, is floundering in a world of fraught sexual politics, parental responsibilities and class expectations. He takes refuge from his domestic problems in a long-cherished writing project and a renewed relationship with his aging father, who came to Britain as part of the windrush generation, but for the first time in his life he begins to feel extremely vulnerable as a black man in English society.

Meanwhile Annabelle watches the man she married against the wishes of her parents struggle with his grip on reality. Despite their three year estrangement, she realises that they have no choice but to close ranks if they are to protect their son from a world of street gangs and violence.