It is a brilliantly unromantic book of five places - London, Lagos, Guangzhou, Houston and Dubai - that opens with the author growing up in the London 1990s. Then off she goes, to some of the most difficult cities in modern history. She was born from the Dutch complex of water and harbor and culture - and she is drawn to the hardest such versions. Full color photos are the trees to the book, and she writes a path through them.