The breakthrough novel from one of Britain's most brilliant critics. 'The Mulberry Empire' is a seemingly straightforward historical novel that recounts an episode in the Great Game in central Asia - the courtship, betrayal and invasion of Afghanistan in the 1830s by the emissaries of Her Majesty's Empire, which is followed by the bloody and summary expulsion of the Brits from Kabul following an Afghani insurrection (shades of the Soviet Union's final imperial fling in the very same country in the 1980s). The novel has at its heart the encounter between West and East as embodied in the likeable, complex relationship between Alexander Burnes, leader of the initial British expeditionary party, and the wily, cultured Afghani ruler, the Amir Dost Mohammed Khan.

HarperCollins are hoping that this will be the breakthrough novel for Philip Hensher, who is one of the most widely acclaimed critics on the current literary scene. A widespread acclaim and was longlisted for the 2002 Man Booker Prize.

The bestselling novel from the Man Booker Prize shortlisted author of The Northern Clemency and King of the Badgers.