In 2010 London's hip rave and drug subculture, Raf, a 22-year-old freelance web designer with an unusual sleep disorder, meets a beautiful and exotic young Burmese American woman named Cherish at a rave in a launderette. Soon Raf is immersed in a shadowy underground of Burmese immigrants battling a sinister corporate conspiracy. The American mining corporation Lacebark has been exploiting Burmese miners for years, but now as mining profits decrease they're looking for a new source of revenue and have decided to enter the illegal drug business. Their product is a mysterious drug used by the Burmese miners called Glow, which only Win, a Burmese chemist in London, knows how to manufacture. Shady characters in white vans are suddenly traversing London, kidnapping Burmese immigrants, and Lacebark has set up a supersecret training facility in a warehouse preparing for a series of raids designed to capture Win and eliminate the opposition. Now, Raf's involvement with Cherish may also make him a target.
VERDICT Beauman, named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists in 2013, has crafted a raucous, seriocomic mash-up of mystery and noir. Combining a wickedly inventive plot with dazzling metaphors and trenchant social observations, this smart and streetwise novel will bring a glow to the reader as well.
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