Price: GBP5.49

Shop: Pickabook

Brand: Arrow

The year is 1954, the height of the Cold War. The world is divided into East and West. In Naples, Lucky Luciano and his minions are busy fixing horse-races, and overseeing the creation of the global heroin trade. In Hollywood, members of Her Majesty's Secret Service have a bizarre and dangerous mission for Cary Grant. And in Bologna, a lovelorn young barman, is about to embark on a painful odyssey in search of his missing father. Bringing together all these strands and more is a missing television set, a McGuffin Electric, an appliance with a very special secret. At once a political thriller and a touching romance, ''54' has a cast ranging from Italian partisans to KGB agents, from American Mafiosi to Parisian lowlifes, and features appearances by Alfred Hitchcock, Marshal Tito and the Emperor of Indochina. Wu Ming - the collective formerly known as Luther Blissett - have produced another tour-de-force that paints a dazzling picture of a past age while slyly commenting on our own.