What does it mean to be lucky? How might we mitigate the effects of bad luck and maximise those of good? Is there actually such a thing as ‘luck’—some force that intervenes between desire and its consummation, that impedes or hastens it? To answer these questions, David Flusfeder sets out on a search for the definition of luck. This quest will take him, among others, to Siberia, Versailles, the Old Testament desert; play roulette in Baden-Baden with Dostoevsky; and the intensely personal story of his father’s good fortune in escaping war-time Hungary. Starting at the British Library in London, and following the dictates of an online randomiser that decided the chapter order, Flusfeder follows in the footsteps of some victors of luck and those who were defeated by it. Luck asks fundamental questions about the world, ourselves, our place in it.