Eight-year-old Matthew Micklewright is removed from his home in the middle of the night. Embarrassed by his parents' distress, he is driven away by soldiers to a decaying country mansion and placed with scores of other children, all wearing red armbands.

It is the beginning of the 'Rearrangement'. The Government, terrified by rising crime and anarchy, has divided Britain into four "quarters" - red, green, yellow and blue - separated by concrete walls, razor wire and armed guards. To cross from one quarter to another is a crime.

The population is divided too, according to their psychological make-up - the optimistic reds, melancholic greens, bad-tempered yellows and dreamy blues.

Matthew is given a new identity, new parents and a new sister, and grows up to be a model citizen of the Red quarter. He never questions what happens, and becomes a high-flying Government official in an authoritarian state.

But one day, he is sent on an official mission to the blue quarter - and goes awol. On the run, he begins a journey across the four quarters of the divided kingdom, in search of his past and of himself.

The quality of the writing in Rupert Thomason's latest surreal novel is breathtaking. Sometimes funny, sometimes frightening, sometimes horrifying, this builds slowly into both a searing examination of the state of Britain today and one man's deeply moving journey of personal discovery. Awesome.

Updated: 16:21 Friday, May 12, 2006