Ordinary Things

An abducted child lives in a car on the roads of America. In Japan an old woman begs in a computer game arcade. In Mexico the lords of the underworld challenge the living to a deadly game. In Australia a tax agent drives from house to house counting assets. From Kinshasa to Peru to Malaysia, across centuries, the lives of ordinary people collide with literature, history and myth. This is a novel about driving to work and Japanese poetry, slavery and telemarketing, war in the Congo, coin operated noodle bars, and crossroads.