Publisher's Synopsis
Once again, Muriel Spark displays her extraordinary talent: cool, biting humour and a unique vision of human nature. Assisted by his wife Nina, Rowland Mahler is running College Sunrise, a finishing school for both sexes and mixed nationalities, while attempting to finish his novel. This term there is a new star pupil - Chris, seventeen, also determined to write his masterpiece. As Chris's novel takes shape while his own flounders, Rowland becomes increasingly obsessed and the college becomes awash with his jealousy and envy.