The Student

It’s Christmas Eve in the craziest city in England. Anything is possible…

It is the night before Christmas and PhD student Jason Malkowski is at his wit’s end. His squalid flat in Headingly is infested with killer mould. The Iranian drug-dealer living downstairs from him is turning his life into a living hell. And he is so stressed out he can no longer concentrate on his studies. As the pressure builds, Jason finds himself sinking ever deeper into a nightmare he can’t escape.

To maintain his sanity, Jason abandons his flat to explore the streets of Leeds and its surrounds. However, as he soon discovers, the city he thought he knew has since transformed into a dark and dangerous wasteland filled with poverty, crime, and danger at every turn. And everyone he meets seems to be talking about a secret government that is preparing to take over the city.

The situation becomes critical when Jason discovers the wild rumours about the secret government might just be true after all—he also learns of a resistance group planning to overthrow the coming dictatorship. Jason realises he is quickly running out of time: should he ignore the rumours and concentrate on qualifying for his doctorate, or join the uprising and jeopardise years of valuable research into the secrets of consciousness and the nature of reality?