Waste Tide

She's a 'waste girl', a scavenger picking through towering heaps of hazardous electronic detritus. Along with thousands of other migrant workers, she was lured to Silicon Isle, off the southern coast of China, by the promise of steady work and a better life. But Silicon Isle is where the rotten fruits of capitalism and consumer culture come to their toxic end. The land is hopelessly polluted, the workers utterly at the mercy of those in power. And now a storm is gathering, as ruthless local gangs skirmish for control, ecoterrorists conspire, investors hunger for profit, and a ChineseAmerican interpreter searches for his roots.

As these forces collide, conflict erupts a war between rich and poor, a battle between past and future. An accomplished ecotechnothriller with heart and soul' DAVID MITCHELL.