Dark family secrets and a long-lost love affair lie at the heart of Iain Banks's fabulous new novel. The Wopuld family built its fortune on a board game called Empire! - now a hugely successful computer game. So successful, the American Spraint Corp wants to buy the firm out. Young renegade Alban, who has been evading the family clutches for years, is run to ground and persuded to attend the forthcoming family gathering - part birthday party, part Extraordinary General Meeting - convened by Win, Wopuld matriarch and most powerful member of the board, at Garbadale, the family's highland castle. Being drawn back into the bosom of the clan brings a disconcerting confrontation with Alban's past. What drove his mother to take her own life? And is he ready to see Sophie, his beautiful cousin and teenage love? Grandmother Win's revelations wll radically alter Alban's perspective for ever.

Eerily compelling -- William Leith Evening Standard A quietly incendiary piece of writing, at times heartbreaking, at other times really wonderfully funny ... a profoundly humane, funny and smart novel. Independent A novel shot through with Banks's trademark humour, political engagement and hope. -- Louise Welsh The Times Wonderfully exuberant ... written with the life-enhancing verve characteristic of Banks's best work. Scotsman Vintage Banks, full of heart, black comedy and vitriol. Mirror A compelling, raw book -- William Leith Evening Standard Banks' handling of big, complex themes is skilful and satisfying, and he concludes on a quietly moving note of compassion. The List Infallibly entertaining Telegraph Banks's relaxed fluency - the direct, funny, unpretentious intelligence of his writing, which, along with his teeming imagination, made him perhaps Britain's best-loved major contemporary novelist. Guardian