At a farmhouse in the middle of who-knows-where, a young woman called Rebecca is about to give birth (it will happen on New Year's Day).

She is twentysomething, jobless and a great dancer. The father of her baby is in little pieces in a secret laboratory in Oxford. Also in the house is Jack, a middle-aged, overweight lorry driver; Martha, a cat burglar who can make herself disappear; Penelope, an elderly Christian charity shop worker who is dying of cancer; Solo, an unlucky Mancunian; and Ben his paraplegic son. As the year turns, we go back in time, back a complete revolution of the sun, and learn how a group of disparate individuals embark on separate journeys which will converge 12 months later. Oxford-based Pears made it big when his second novel In A Land Of Plenty was televised. This one is written in an extraordinary style, compelling and meandering.