Copyright

      Fourth Estate

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.4thestate.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate 2009

      Copyright © Tash Aw 2009

      Cover credit © Jack Smyth; Figure photo © Plainpicture / Willing-Holtz; Texture © Unsplash

      Tash Aw asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780007349982

      Ebook Edition © JULY 2009 ISBN: 9780007337576

      Version: 2019-02-20

       Dedication

       For my sisters LL and SL