'People can get a compulsion to fix the place. Cambodia can be seductive like that' - author Maeve Galvin

Debut author Maeve Galvin worked as a humanitarian for the UN and tells Tanya Sweeney how her new novel explores the 'saviour complex', and the lure of hedonism that can seduce many foreign aid workers

An exploration of motivation: Maeve Galvin's novel is every bit as thrilling and complex as its setting

Tanya Sweeney

As anyone who has been there knows, Cambodia is a bubbling mass of contradictions. Natural beauty and friendliness collide with grinding poverty and corruption, for a start. In Phnom Penh, piles of rubbish languish in the gutter next to skyscraper hotels with glossy cocktail bars. It attracts people for many reasons.