The book is based on the brutal social inequality in present-day Malaysia told from the viewpoint of Ah Hock, a Malaysian of Chinese ethnicity who has just spent three years in jail for killing a Bangladeshi migrant worker.

What I liked about this book was that it never sugarcoated what reality is for migrant workers in Malaysia. Some migrants are local Malaysians, others are recent immigrants from more destitute places like Bangladesh and Myanmar. A grim picture emerges from this novel of the Asian continent’s poor and less-poor.

The laborers who built modern Malaysia seem to be destined for obscurity, each layer of cement and heavy load they carry crushing who they really are. They have migrated in the hopes of 'making it in life', but unfortunately it is all perceived as self-delusion, and climbing the rungs of society is almost impossible.

The book has really taken aim at the rampant dislocations that class exploitation has wrought on Malaysian society. In this respect, I think the book is important for bringing awareness to this topic. However, the story for me wasn't very engaging and felt some parts weren't required in quite so much detail. (I skim read the second half of the book in 45 minutes...)