Book: The Ballad of a Small Player

There is nothing in the title or on the stylish cover of (at least the British edition of) Lawrence Osborne's slim new novel to indicate that the book is set entirely in Macau and Hong Kong. While an admirable breach of marketing convention, this means it may also slip unnoticed by many potential readers in what must surely be a key market.

That would be a great shame, for The Ballad of a Small Player is one of the best, and quite possibly the best, East Asian "expat novel" of the past decade. I realize with concern that this may come across as damning with faint praise.