* The long-awaited and stunning new novel from the unrivalled Iain Banks - a high-definition, hyper-real apocalyptic fable for our times

Abridged. A world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse, such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organisation with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers? The long-awaited and stunning new novel from the unrivalled Iain Banks - a high-definition, hyper-real apocalyptic fable for our times.

** 'One of Iain Banks's most imaginative and compelling novels yet