One young man's dizzying ascent through the dazzle of contemporary consumer culture takes him from orphaned tragedy to double-edged success.

The First Day in Paradise tells the story of a young orphaned family who have been passed on from one set of relations to another, and whose eldest sibling, Adam, becomes enthralled by the impending opening nearby of a gigantic and beautiful shopping-mall by a flamboyant entrepreneur. To the consternation of his aunt and uncle, who run a small business, he joins the staff of one of its stores, and begins a dizzying ascent through the ranks, until circumstances induce him to question whether his entire value-system has become corrupted.

Functioning both as social-economic critique, and as a personal moral fable about the conjuration of ambition from present-day consumer culture, The First Day in Paradise is an engrossing and layered tale loosely modelled on Dante's Paradiso, but most of all it's simply a great read.

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Author Stuart Walton has published work in the fields of cultural history and philosophy (as well as consumer titles on wine and drinks). His two principal works are Out Of It: A Cultural History of Intoxication (Hamish Hamilton, 2001 - new edition currently in preparation for Dean Street Press) and Humanity: An Emotional History (Atlantic Books, 2004 - also to be reissued by Dean Street Press), which have been translated into seven languages. He is also a features and comment journalist, who writes for the Guardian books blog, and reviewa books for a number of specialist and general titles.

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