This book is longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2013. ' To play the country-game we have to choose a country. Everybody wants to be the USA & Britain & Canada & Australia & Switzerland & them. Nobody wants to be rags of countries like Congo like Somalia like Iraq like Sudan like Haiti & not even this one we live in
- who wants to be a terrible place of hunger & things falling apart?' Darling & her friends live in a shanty called Paradise which of course is no such thing. It isn't all bad though. There's mischief & adventure games of Find bin Laden stealing guavas singing Lady Gaga at the tops of their voices. They dream of the paradises of America Dubai Europe where Madonna & Barack Obama & David Beckham live. For Darling that dream will come true. But like the thousands of people all over the world trying to forge new lives far from home Darling finds this new paradise brings its own set of challenges
- for her & also for those she's left behind.