FIVE STAR BILLIONAIRE

In the Man Booker prize-longlisted novel, Tash Aw charts the overlapping lives of migrant Malaysian workers, forging lives for themselves in sprawling Shanghai. Justin is from a family of successful property developers. Phoebe has come to China buoyed with hope, but her dreams are shattered within hours as the job she has come for seems to never to have existed. Gary is a successful pop artist, but his fans and marketing machine disappear after a bar-room brawl. Yinghui has businesses that are going well, but must make decisions about her life, and then there is Walter, the shadowy billionaire, ruthless and manipulative, ultimately alone in the world. The author weaves their journeys in new China, counterpointing their adventures with the old life they have left behind in Malaysia and the result is a brilliant examination of migrations that are shaping new city experiences worldwide. It is a layered and unsentimental portrayal of contemporary China evoking the smells, sounds of the land and cityscapes, the figures of speech and shifting cultural mores. 435pp in paperback.