By night the glittering world of Times Square, cinemas, clubs and the brittle, played-out demi-monde . . . by day a wasteland of hollow men, lonely apartments and empty morning coffee stands . . .

Robert Holton has just returned from the torment and strife of war in Europe and settled in a solitary existence working for a New York stockbroking business. The haunting memories of nights of love spent in Florence are suppressed as he struggles to succeed in an arid city.

And when Carla turns up unexpectedly from his more passionate past, Robert finds he must choose between the fixed path of money-making and dull conventionality and the fraught, uncertain path of love and freedom.

Gore Vidal was at the centre of literary and intellectual life for half a century and wrote 'The Narratives of a Golden Age' series as well as countless bestsellers. He died on 31st July 2012.