Gregory, a young entrepreneur and restaurateur, is in financial difficulties. He sees an advertisement in the paper offering to buy collectibles of value, but when he follows it up, he ends up selling more than he bargained for: his soul. Later, he regrets the sale, thinking he has been in some way tricked (or hypnotized) and tries to recover the contract he signed. Then, in the context of a decaying business and his faltering relationship with Sonya, the daughter of an exiled Russian academic, and as he reminisces about a wilder, care-free past when he first moved to the capital, he is led on a quest that becomes mixed up with lawyers, politicians, civil servants, Russians, the British Establishment, and Cold War conspiracies. Eventually, he finds himself, in a strictly legal sense, on the sacrificial altar of modern-day Aztecs, who use human sacrifice for their own sinister ends... The Hummingbird on the Left is a Huxlean view into a Kafkaesque world where political power is not quite where you would expect it to be; and it gives an ominous (and arguably quirky) warning about government infiltration by underground or secret organizations. The first part of a dyad of novels, it precedes The Obsidian Butterfly. Praise for The Hummingbird on the Left and its sequel, The Obsidian Butterfly: 'A talented author' [whose] 'books are very original' - Darin Jewell (literary agent) 'Intriguing and well written' - Max Eilenberg (publisher)