For six hectic months, season to season in the High Fashion calendar, twenty-something male model Alex hurtles between London, Paris and Milan, absorbed in the ruthless world of the catwalk. His long-term girlfriend, Nathalie, is desperate to rekindle their love; his oldest friend, Hugo, though regarding Alex’s so-called career as frivolous, continues to urge fidelity; while his father, reduced to a voice on an answer machine, nevertheless persists in seeking his estranged son’s approval. As his stock as a model soars, Alex is increasingly drawn into a world of predatory sex, drug-induced infatuation and a growing bewilderment with the alluring, seductive shallowness of all he sees around him. The centre cannot hold …

Gavin James Bower’s first novel is an astonishing debut. Written in a terse, vivid prose his sharp, ironic tone eviscerates the superficiality of a glittering world where nothing is what it seems and chaotic despair is never far away.

The author graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2004 and, while interning that summer at Dazed & Confused, was asked to model for an upcoming issue. Joining agencies in London, Paris and Milan, he went on to model for John Galliano and Hermès. His journalism has appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, FLUX and Culture Wars