'Grace Chan was born in Kuala Lumpur to Malaysian Chinese parents, and grew up in the outer south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. From her bedroom window, she could gaze straight up at the brown hills around Lysterfield and Dandenong. She felt as though her house was right on the border between the known and unknown. Nowadays, Grace still lives in Melbourne suburbia. She has an abiding nostalgia for out-of-date shopping centres, tacky food courts, untrendy restaurants and ungentrified shopping strips.' (Introduction)