Open-handed by Chris Binchy

The place is Dublin. The time is the present. Five characters - two Irish, three from eastern Europe, all seeking success from wildly different starting points - become entangled with one another in a web of politics, property, sex and violence. Chris Binchy's breakthrough novel is a beautifully observed portrait of a time and place, and a thrillingly paced story of characters brought together by circumstance, ambition and need.