The Dice Was Loaded From the Start by David Annand

Summer, 2018. Max, in his early 40s, has been living in Berlin for the past decade failing to become the filmmaker he was once tipped to be. But his wife's career is taking off, and with a generous relocation package they've moved back to London, into a rented home in a tree-lined street near Hampstead Heath. Pemberton Place is populated by couples who have lived there since the 70s, who bought their houses for a song, raised their families, and now sit on a relative fortune. The Boomers, as Max thinks of them, are cultured and urbane, full of shared stories and storied pasts, and immediately take Max under their wing. He joins them most evenings as they gather to drink wine and reminisce on glories past. Max is both insider and outsider, participant and observer: a position in which he feels disconcertingly comfortable. Then eight politically mischievous Millennials move in to an empty house on the street and upend this cosy equilibriu