As darkness falls on the M25, the flow of traffic comes to a halt. Time passes. More time passes. Then more. Drivers switch off their engines, then get out of their cars. And so the story begins . . .

In this bold, state-of-the-nation novel, Jake Wallis Simons brings together characters from all walks of life and explores what happens when lives collide on the M25.

‘It’s a mark of Jake Wallis Simons’ skill as a writer that he can make the stationary more action-packed than the fast-moving . . . The average real-life motorist might try to avoid the M25 as one of the very circles of hell, but in his fourth novel Simons homes in on the motorway like a modern-day Dante. This “hellish ring” is, of course, Britain itself, in microcosm, its penitent citizens sitting in limbo, idling like their engines and pondering the road ahead’ – Daily Telegraph