* 2022 ACFM Busan Story Market Selection
* Top Ten Bestseller at Naiin Retail Bookstores (Thailand)
* Film adaptation currently in production

Rumor has it that a secretive criminal organization housed in an izakaya-style restaurant possesses the power to magically alter the course of a person’s life – at a price. But be warned, becoming everything you ever wanted might cost more than you ever bargained for.

Aspiring writer and hospital worker Ho Ching-Cheng’s life is shattered when a car accident robs him of both his mother and his true love. With nothing to soothe his heartache, he pours himself into writing stories and posting them online. Just as his work begins attracting a following, Ho receives an invitation to join a secretive criminal organization as a “screenwriter” who will rewrite the lives of the organization’s clients.

Operating out of an izakaya-style restaurant, the organization consists of a “director”, a “producer”, an “art director”, a “screenwriter”, and a “cinematographer”. Clients need only carry a copy of the screenplay of their new life with them as they enter the mysterious attic above the restaurant, and the story of their life will be rewritten.

But the price for these services is high: the client must accept full responsibility for all of the consequences of their newly chosen life. Nonetheless, there is no shortage of people who seek out their services: the disabled woman who longs for the normal life led by her neighbor, the teacher who will accept any risk for the sake of his child’s future, the stage actor who destroyed the life of a close friend in a fit of jealousy. But do their lives really change for the better? Are they truly willing to let go of the lives they once had?

With his breezy narrative touch, author Lin Ting-Yi weaves together the lives of protagonist Ho Ching-Cheng and his clients, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality even as the richness of our human nature comes into clear focus. Authentic emotional landscapes resonate from the page, endowing readers with the courage to face their own life choices – a testament to the power of a heartwarmingly ingenuous novel that brims with quirks and surprises.