There are so many larger-than-life characters in this wonderful novel... It is the story of one young man's getting of wisdom,an oblique but observant history of Britain from the 1980s to the present day, and a great game of consequences'.

After years of exile, Alban Wopuld has been summoned back to his family's highland estate, Garbadale. The Wopuld clan are closing ranks. They have built their fortune on the boardgame Empire.t -which has become a hugely successful computer game - and now the Americans want to buy them out.

As the family gathers for their Extraordinary General Meeting,old grudges, forbidden passions and dark secrets emerge.What drove Alban's mother to take her own life? And is he over Sophie, his bewitching cousin and teenage love?