Sabine is the most mercurial woman Peter Thorpe has ever known. Such is his desire for her that he overturns his whole life - his disillusioned merchant-banker's life - and leaves everything behind, not caring that his lover is of no fixed address, nor that his search for her will take him to the beating heart of New Ageism in northern California.

Each of his fellow seekers is in hot pursuit of that elusive something (happiness?), and in their eccentric company Peter stumbles across vistas he had never before dared to imagine . . .

`St Aubyn has achieved a comic novel which is more than a send-up and carries the message that love is not quite all you need' Independent

`An intellectually informed, richly insightful and vigorously funny take on the modern condition' Sunday Times

`Pierced with goodwill, tenderness and a new kind of thoughtfulness' Spectator

`His satire is unfailingly funny and immensely satisfying' Guardian