Shortlisted for the 2001 Orange Prize, "Hotel World" showcases the talent of a major new novelist. Sara Wilby, a hotel chambermaid, falls to her death in the dumbwaiter yet lingers in the world as her distraught sister strives to complete an errand she doesn't completely understand.

Shortlisted for the 2001 Orange Prize, "Hotel World" showcases the talent of a major new novelist. Sara Wilby, a hotel chambermaid, falls to her death in the dumbwaiter yet lingers in the world as her distraught sister strives to complete an errand she doesn't completely understand.

Woooooooo-hooooooo.

Five people: four are living; three are strangers; two are sisters; one, a teenage hotel chambermaid, has fallen to her death in a dumbwaiter. But her spirit lingers in the world, straining to recall things she never knew. And one night all five women find themselves in the smooth plush environs of the Global Hotel, where the intersection of their very different fates make for this playful, defiant, and richly inventive novel. Forget room service: this is a riotous elegy, a deadpan celebration of colliding worlds, and a spirited defense of love. Blending incisive wit with surprising compassion, Hotel World is a wonderfully invigorating, life-affirming book.