The Waiter

Kwan Ann Tan author Mark Andrew Webber illustrator

Format:Paperback

Publisher:The Emma Press

Publishing:13th Nov '25

£10.99

This title is due to be published on 13th November, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

The Waiter cover

Your time is precious. Book a Waiter now.

An interactive fiction debut inviting readers to pick their way through a future London on the brink of collapse.

London, in a not-too-distant future. The city is being swallowed into the ground, the rich are still getting richer, and Waiters do the jobs you don’t have time for. They queue for your concert tickets, stay in for your deliveries and stir your risotto.

Step into the shoes of an unnamed Waiter who has no recollection of who they were before their role at the Company. Now select your next job and decide whether to peek into the client’s luggage, and if you'll risk losing work credits by helping a tired woman with her shopping. Balance your humanity with your job security at every turn, and manage your creeping desire to understand who you once were, and who you might become. You’ll want to crawl as close as possible to the edge of the maw without falling into its depths.

With 12 different endings and countless journeys towards them, The Waiter creates a labyrinthine world of possibilities and parallel worlds which combine to explore queer longing, consumerism and agency in a city and a psyche on the brink of collapse.

ISBN: 9781915628480

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 8mm

Weight: unknown

162 pages