A tender horror story all the more haunting for being so familiar' Roisin Kiberd author of
The Disconnect 'Here is a new existence among the malls of instant consumerism' Alan Warner The
suburbs of Par Mars. Two shopping centres rows of estates and thematically designed
neighbourhoods. Twenty-four-year-old Leen is going to open an ear-cleaning and massage studio
in the Topic Heights Shopping Centre taking her mother's Chinese ritual to the West to bring
people back to their bodies. But something is not quite right in Par Mars. Managers are being
attacked and when Leen befriends Jean Paul a pharmacist who is obsessed with a cryptic online
forum she finds herself involved in a community that is intent on disrupting the routines of
capitalism in increasingly troubling ways. With a fierce intellect and masterful storytelling
Jamie Marina Lau brings to life a world that is devastatingly close to our own.
