Charlie Wales is a young man who wants everything. Fresh from University he's seduced by the excitement of a new life in London that promises sex, sophistication and lots of money. There's Vero, the beautiful French girl
who might finally fall for him. Unemployed, there's the lure of art but also the promise of fast money in the City. And his friends are all spiralling into a world of drink, drugs and selfish greed. But as the choices begin to tear him apart, there's also the danger that all the things he desires are on the brink of crashing around him...

This debut novel, written by a 30-year-old bond trader, does not merely pick over the carcass of the financial markets in the wake of the recent crash. It is also a heartbreaking love story, a withering study of the years of excess, and a touching contemplation of how good people end up doing terrible things.

Alex Preston lives in Hackney with his wife and son. He was born in 1979. He is Global Head of Trading in The Carlyle Group's Leveraged Finance division. Previously he ran a loan and derivative trading desk at ABN Amro. He studied English Literature under Tom Paulin at Hertford College, Oxford, and is currently completing an MA at Birkbeck University. This Bleeding City is his first novel. He has previously had work published in the New Statesman and Attitude and was a contributing editor to the website Bibliomania.com