An electrifying novel about a chance encounter that changes everything for a girl

On the remote Hong Kong beach where they are camping, bickering parents and their lonely teenage daughter awaken at sunrise to a strange sight: a dozen women suddenly on the shore. They seem to have washed in from the sea. Fifteen-year-old Sarah, known as Xixi, tries befriending them, and she snaps a cell phone image of a beautiful young woman she calls Mary. Soon after, Xixi, believing she has a connection with Mary, posts the photo on Facebook, triggering an online narrative she can neither comprehend nor control. Meanwhile, Jacob and Leah, distracted by their failing marriage, must also deal with the fury of an absent older daughter, Rachel, and a looming new SARS epidemic in Hong Kong. As fear and paranoia settle over the city, isolated Xixi grows more desperate to save Mary from her doomed circumstances. She dares herself to be brave, and take a risk; her action is perilous.

Told in the voice of a bi-racial, “half-half” girl and the language of social media, Planet Lolita is a riveting novel of desires and consequences in our unfolding digital age.

CHARLES FORAN is an award-winning journalist and author of ten books, including four previous novels. His biography Mordecai: The Life and Times won the Charles Taylor Prize, the Governor General’s Award, the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Literary Nonfiction and the Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award. He holds degrees from the University of Toronto and University College, Dublin. He lives in Toronto.

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