Hearts and Minds [Hardcover]

'This is a novel written with passion and moral outrage. It is a vivid portrait of a city that is at once familiar and disconcertingly strange' --THE TIMES Joan Smith

'She is a humane writer as well a waspish one and it is the plight of London's migrant workers and sink-school pupils with which she is primarily concerned here, and her passion and care are affecting'

'There is much in HEARTS AND MINDS to praise . . . The book displays the author's relentless compassion. A large kindness overarches the novel'

'Throughout, the writing is confident, purposeful, quietly dynamic . . . Impressively, the narrative's contained momentum is achieved neither at the expense of humour (which is sharp and almost entirely successful), nor of Craig's characters'

'Her style is immediate and precise, and convincingly dramatic . . . Compelling . . . a terrific read'

`Craig's excellence lies in her ability to underpin everything with hope and the promise of redemption'

'Rich, Dickensian'

'Throughout, the writing is confident, purposeful, quietly dynamic . . . Impressively, the narrative's contained momentum is achieved neither at the expense of humour (which is sharp and almost entirely successful), nor of Craig's characters'

Rich or poor, five people, seemingly very different, find their lives in the capital connected in undreamed-of ways. There is Job, the illegal mini-cab driver whose wife in Zimbabwe no longer answers his letters; Ian, the idealistic supply teacher in exile from South Africa; Katie from New York, jilted and miserable as a dogsbody at a political magazine, and fifteen-year-old Anna, trafficked into sexual slavery. Polly Noble, an overworked human rights lawyer, knows better than most how easy it is to fall through the cracks into the abyss. Yet when her au pair, Iryna, disappears, Polly's own needs and beliefs drag her family into a world of danger, deceit and terror. Riveting, humane, engaging, HEARTS AND MINDS is a novel that is both entertaining and prepared to ask the most serious questions about the way we live.

Amanda Craig is a well-known journalist and broadcaster. She is the author of A VICIOUS CIRCLE, IN A DARK WOOD and LOVE IN IDLENESS.