The Booker Prize-winning contemporary morality tale—cleverly disguised as a comic novel—from the acclaimed author of <i>Atonement</i>.<br /><br /> On a chilly February day, two old friends meet in the throng outside a London crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane. Both Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday had been Molly&apos;s lovers in the days before they reached their current eminence: Clive is Britain&apos;s most successful modern composer, and Vernon is a newspaper editor<i>.</i> Gorgeous, feisty Molly had other lovers, too, notably Julian Garmony, Foreign Secretary, a notorious right-winger tipped to be the next prime minister. In the days that follow Molly&apos;s funeral, Clive and Vernon will make a pact with consequences that neither could have foreseen…