There's the surface story in this book, a darkly cynical farce about guys drinking and sleazing their way around the city, making money through shady means and giving each other a hard time. I don't think I'd like any of them very much if I were to meet them, but I can't help rooting for them because they don't seem to like themselves very much either.

And then occasionally it hits you in the gut with how it's also a war story. Like, oh, did the characters mention bombs going off and riots in the street? Let me spell out what that actually entails.

But more than that, it's a city story. (A city I don't know at all. I can only imagine how many cultural nuances and references I missed.) And I love those.