London Banker in Silk Undies Faces Ruin Without Bonus

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A London banker with silk underpants who risks going broke if his bonus is less than 1 million pounds. An artist named Smitty who thrives on anonymous graffiti and stunts. Pakistani shopkeepers, a Polish builder, and a gangly Senegalese soccer star.

These are just a few denizens of Pepys Road, the locus of John Lanchester’s “Capital,” a fat and funny social novel about London during the financial meltdown of 2007 and 2008.