'Gloriously exuberant and entertaining.'Guardian

'A funny, moving and thought-provoking tale ... It's brilliant.'Independent on Sunday

Sergeant Lester Ferris is a good man in need of a rest. Hes spent a lot of his life being shot at. He has no family, hes nearly forty, burned out and about to be retired.

The island of Mancreu is the perfect place for Lester to serve out his time and the perfect place for shady business, too, hence the Black Fleet of illicit ships lurking in the bay: listening stations, money laundering operations, drug factories and deniable torture centres. None of which should be a problem, because Lesters brief is to turn a blind eye.

But Lester has made a friend: a brilliant, internet-addled street kid with a comic-book fixation who might, Lester hopes, become an adopted son. As Mancreus small society tumbles into violence, the boy needs Lester to be more than just an observer. He needs him to be a hero.

Nick Harkaway is the author ofThe Gone-Away WorldandAngelmaker, and of an even better and more exciting novel whose name will probably end up beingTigerman, or possiblyMan, Island, Boy. Contrary to what you may have heard, the title really is the hard part. When he's not writing, he spends his time being the husband of a brilliant lawyer and the dad of two small children who are secretly bent on world domination. He likes Italian red wine and lives in a bit of London where the taxis still have a horse at the pointy end.