In every face I meet - Justin Cartwright

* shortlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Novel Award, and winner of a Commonwealth Writers Prize *

Set against the background of Nelson Mandela's release, IN EVERY FACE I MEET is the story of Anthony Northleach, and one intense, comic and horrifying day in his life.

With the brio and intelligence for which he has been so widely praised, Justin Cartwright captures the life of an apparently ordinary Englishman - his marriage, his work, his sexual relationships and his connection to the events and sports of the world around him - until his day takes on the aspect first of a waking dream then of a true nightmare.

Its horrifying conclusion, as Anthony Northleach runs into a south London prosititute, is shocking because the reader has come to see his story as both emblematic and savagely observant. Friendship, it seems, is all Anthony has left.