The day they moved in was a memorable one for me. Not because of them, for I couldn't know what they were to bring into my life, but because of a dog.

Harryboy Boas is a gambling man. An independent Jewish bachelor, he lives in a Hackney boarding house: reading Zola, betting on the dogs at the track, womanising, philosophising, and repressing his tortured wartime past. Until, that is, a new family moves in. As his life dramatically unravels - financially, emotionally, and existentially - Harryboy descends into a murky criminal underworld where debts, violence, gangsters and revenge are the inevitable payback for those who can't pay up ...

'Extraordinary.' William Boyd