Leonard Lessing once cast a spell on stage, hypnotizing crowds with his improvised jazz, easy in his music, at home in the moment. Now, home is somewhere he never leaves. His sax is silent, his marriage faltering, his stepdaughter vanished, and his life shrinking – until one afternoon the TV brings news he can't ignore. A figure from his firebrand past has arrived in town, with hair-raising results. Can Leonard face the limelight one last time? Jim Crace has enjoyed great success in both Britain and United States and his work is widely translated. He is the prize-winning author of nine previous books, including Continent (winner of the 1986 Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize), Quarantine (winner of the 1998 Whitbread Novel of the Year and shortlisted for the Booker Prize) and Being Dead (winner of the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award). He lives in Birmingham.
