In Australia, in 1967, four children tell a lie to get out of trouble. As a result, an immigrant worker is wrongly accused of a crime with horrific results. Nearly forty years later, in London, police gun down an innocent electrician because he might have been concealing explosives in the overcoat he was wearing. In Sydney, a short time later, during a heavy-security international conference attended by the American President, another suspected terrorist pushes his way through the heat of summer, wearing an overcoat... As the tension builds and the truth comes out about the shooting, we follow the siblings, adults now: one in Sydney as she is inconvenienced by preparations for the conference; one in Italy as he rages against secret codes and tribal rituals; and one in Morocco as she is caught up in an anti-western riot. Unfolding like a psychological thriller Kate Atkinson might write, this novel is both powerful and disturbing. From its pitch-perfect depiction of the fears and pleasures of childhood and a holiday gone feral in all kinds of ways, to the paranoia of a sweltering city in lockdown for fear of a terrorist attack - and what can happen when judgement is overridden by fear - this book builds inexorably to a shattering climax on the edge of Sydney Harbor as a city holds its breath.
