Hidden away in an Oxford back street is a crumbling Georgian mansion, unknown to any but the few who possess a key to its unassuming front gate. Its owner is the mercurial, charismatic Mark Winters, whose rackety trust-fund upbringing has left him as troubled and unpredictable as he is wildly promiscuous.

Mark gathers around him an impressionable group of students- glamorous Emmanuella, who always has a new boyfriend in tow; Franny and Simon, best friends and occasional lovers; musician Jess, whose calm exterior hides passionate depths. And James, already damaged by Oxford and looking for a group to belong to.

For a time the group lives in a charmed world of learning and parties and love affairs. But university is no grounding for adult life, and when, years later, tragedy strikes they are entirely unprepared.

Universal in its themes of ambition, desire and betrayal, this spellbinding novel reflects the truth that the lessons life teaches often come too late.

'The naïve sense of indestructibility possessed by a close-knit group of students is expertly balanced with the suspense of what threatens to unfold.' Sophie Morris Saturday Independent

'Naomi Alderman's second novel examines the warping effects of wealth.' Joanna Briscoe, Observer

'Alderman's premise is familiar - trust-funder going to the bad - but this is, nonetheless, a dark spell of a book, with brooding disenchantment at its heart.' Eithne Farry.Daily Mail

'As the novel progresses, we are forced to look at how people are driven by impulses they're not even aware of, and the most brutal lesson of all- that love doesn't come without pain or sacrifice.' Alastair Mabbott, The Herald

'The Lessonsis sturdily plotted and hooks you in- it's a good read if not unique.' Alice Fisher, Observer

'Alderman packs a punch with her opening line', Lianne Kolirin, Daily Express

'The Lessonshas more insight into human nature than Martin Amis's The Pregnant Widow, and is more intellectually sustained. This is a second novel from a young writer of huge talent, ambition and energy.' Amanda Craig, Independent

'No one writes about pain better than Alderman. Lose yourself in 278 pages and you enter another world.' Liz Hoggard, Evening Standard

'Naomi Alderman is, evidently, not afraid of ghosts. She courts them and flirts with them and defies them in her darkly seductive second novel, The Lessons.' Damian Barr, Independent on Sunday

'Beautifully written . . . satisfyingly complex exploration of the characters and their relationships.' Samira Shackle, New Statesman

'This is a remarkable novel, which portrays with uncomfortable accuracy the feted world of the Oxford undergraduate. It reminds me a great deal of Donna Tartt's The Secret Historyin that it has the same brooding sense of menace and the same lightening characterisation. Naomi is a supremely talented writer.' Joanne Harris,

'Witty, dark and compelling.' Charlotte Mendelson

'Wise, compassionate and heart-rending, a novel that conveys all the cruelty and pain of gilded youth.' Liz Jensen author of Chocolat

Praise for Disobedience-

'Rich, fresh, fascinating. A wonderful novel' Sunday Times

'Sharp, funny and poignant' Hilary Mantel