* FINALIST FOR THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE, BSFA AND JOHN W. CAMPBELL MEMORIAL AWARDS *'Seemingly effortless literary flair' - Guardian'High-powered fiction of the cleverest sort' - LA Review of Books 'Darkly entertaining and disturbingly timely' - Locus 'Funny, fantastical, readable and remarkable' - ReactorIN A FRACTURED EUROPE, NEW NATIONS ARE SPRINGING UP EVERYWHERE, SOME LITERALLY OVERNIGHTFor an intelligence officer like Jim, it's a nightmare. Every week or so a friendly power spawns a new and unknown national entity which may or may not be friendly to England's interests. It's hard to keep on top of it all. But things are about to get worse for Jim. A stabbing on a London bus pitches him into a world where his intelligence service is preparing for war with another universe, and a man has come who may hold the key to unlocking Europe's most jealously-guarded secret...
