I loved this book! Winner of the Pulitzer prize for 2011. I had borrowed it from a friend a couple of years ago to read, but wanted to read it again, so found a cheap copy. Some of it is so gritty and tough, and some so delicate and beautiful. A great book.

From the back: "[this book] vividly captures the moments where lives interact, and where fortunes ebb and flow. Egan depicts with elegant prose, and often heart-wrenching simplicity, the sad consequences for those who couldn't fake it during their wild youth-- madness, suicide or prison-- in this captivating, wryly humourous story of temptation and loss."