Amanda Craig

'Craig anatomises the state of the nation with wit and empathy' JONATHAN COE'The most mischievous take imaginable on the way we live now' FRANCIS SPUFFORD'Sharp and funny, clear-eyed and unsentimental' CLARE CHAMBERS'She's such a skilful storyteller who vividly dramatises our lives with wit, wisdom and compassion' BERNARDINE EVARISTOIn the worst day of the year, and on the twelfth day of Christmas, a group of people come under siege in Cross St, North London. A gang is hunting for a child who has been drawn into crime with tragic results; there is a riot outside the church where asylum seekers have been sleeping, and many cities have descended into fierce protests. Inside the Literary Cafe, a group of writers, bakers and shopkeepers are sheltering. Their petty feuds and past quarrels must be forgotten if they are to survive a gang armed with knives and a gun. Over a few hours, the divisions between high and low, old and new, haves and have-nots are thrown into violent contrast. Are they going to try to save themselves, or each other?

When Hannah is invited into the First-Class carriage of the London to Penzance train by Jinni, she walks into a spider's web. Now a poor young single mother, Hannah once escaped Cornwall to go to university. But once she married Jake and had his child, her dreams were crushed into bitter disillusion. Her husband has left her for Eve, rich and childless, and Hannah has been surviving by becoming a cleaner in London. Jinni is equally angry and bitter, and in the course of their journey the two women agree to murder each other's husbands. After all, they are strangers on a train - who could possibly connect them? But when Hannah goes to Jinni's husband's home the next night, she finds Stan, a huge, hairy, ugly drunk who has his own problems - not least the care of a half-ruined house and garden. He claims Jinni is a very different person to the one who has persuaded Hannah to commit a terrible crime. Who is telling the truth - and who is the real victim?