The Whale

After a year abroad, seventeen-year-old Alf returns to his Catholic boys' school, only to find that no longer relates to his mates, who are popular and athletic. He finds himself drawn to new classmate Oliver, but in an attempt to dispel rumours, Alf bonds with his old friends and ends up committing a crime to prove he still belongs.

Hamid is an Iranian teenage boy whose sexuality brings him into conflict with his family's Muslim beliefs.

The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.

The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.

Set in a modern-day London of economic and political uncertainty, the story follows the intersecting themes of familial honor, moral duty and dynastic corruption.