This is a short story about the life of one of the characters in Wind-Up Girl prior to his appearance in the novel. Highly recommended. ( )

Tranh is a immigrant to Bangkok, expelled from Malaya for being Chinese. Chinese immigrants are none too popular there either, being persecuted as guest workers, 'yellow card men', by the local 'white shirt' police. Tranh used to be a biotech magnate: now he has nothing, beyond an expensive Hwang Brothers suit, which he hopes to use as a gambit to get a job. Bangkok is also in the grips of a biotech revolution, as mutated cats, bioplague-diseased fish and resurrected saurians turn the hothouse atmosphere into a survival nightmare. A chance meeting with an old junior employee sets off a chain of consequences. Very dark and future-Dickensian. ( )