By turns outrageous and touching, an exuberant Dickensian satire of crime, celebrity, and modern culture from "one of the most gifted novelists of his generation" (TIME)"One of Amis's funniest novels." --The New Yorker>Yet Lionel, full of inept devotion to his nephew, dutifully teaches Des the essentials of becoming a man (always carry a knife, pornography is easier than dating, pit bulls should be fed Tabasco sauce). To survive these lessons, Des seeks solace in a covert romantic union that would fill Lionel with rage. But just as Des begins to lead a healthier life, Lionel wins £140 million in the lottery. The money ushers in a public-relations firm for Lionel, along with a cannily ambitious topless model-poet. Through it all, Lionel remains his vicious, oddly loyal self, and his problems, as well as Des's, only seem to multiply.