Tash Aw Books In Order

The Harmony Silk Factory

Tash Aw’s highly original first novel juxtaposes three accounts of the life of an enigmatic man at a pivotal and haunting moment in Malaysian history. The Harmony Silk Factory is the textiles store run by Johnny Lim, a Chinese peasant living in rural Malay in the first half of the twentieth century. It is the most impressive and truly amazing structure in the region, and to the inhabitants of the Kinta Valley Johnny Lim is a hero a Communist who fought the Japanese when they invaded, ready to sacrifice his life for the welfare of his people. But to his son, Jasper, Johnny is a crook and a collaborator who betrayed the very people he pretended to serve, and The Harmony Silk Factory is merely a front for his father’s illegal businesses. Centering on Johnny from three perspectives those of his grown son; his wife, Snow, the most beautiful woman in the Kinta Valley through her diary entries; and his best and only friend, an Englishman adrift named Peter Wormwood the novel reveals the difficulty of knowing another human being, and how our assumptions about others also determine who we are. Joseph Conrad, W. Somerset Maugham, and Anthony Burgess have shaped our perceptions of Malaysia. Now, with The Harmony Silk Factory, we have an authentic Malaysian voice that remaps this literary landscape. Through this examination of a compelling, mysterious, and larger than life character, Tash Aw gives us an exquisitely written look into another culture at a moment of crisis.

Map of the Invisible World

Set during the tumultuous Year of Living Dangerously in post colonial Indonesia, a stunning follow up to the international debut literary sensation The Harmony Silk Factory.

Tash Aw burst onto the international literary scene in 2005 with his highly acclaimed, award winning debut novel. Now, with the same lyrical evocation of an exotic yet tumultuous world that made The Harmony Silk Factory so beloved, Map of the Invisible World is masterful, psychologically rich, and deeply rewarding.

Sixteen year old Adam is an orphan three times over. He and his older brother, Johan, were abandoned by their mother as children; then Adam watched as Johan was taken away by a wealthy couple; and now Karl, the artist who raised Adam, has been arrested by soldiers during Sukarno’s drive to purge 1960s Indonesia of its colonial past.

All Adam has to guide him in his quest to find Karl are some old photos and letters one of which sends him to the colourful, dangerous capital, Jakarta, and to Margaret, an American whose own past is bound up with Karl s. Soon, both have embarked on journeys of discovery that seem destined to turn tragic.

Woven hauntingly into this page turning story is the voice of Johan, who is living a seemingly carefree, privileged life in Malaysia, but who is careening out of control as he cannot forget his long ago betrayal of his helpless, trusting brother.

Map of the Invisible World confirms Tash Aw as one of the most exciting young voices on the international stage.

X-24: Unclassified

An American girl dreams of soccer and Mardi Gras while her Nigerian parents wait for their green cards; an organic seed distributor entraps an errant lover with a replica pre Columbian Aztec artefact bought in Chicago; an instrument gardener harvests the sound of a dead woman; a matchmaker faces failure unless she’s prepared to offer herself; an English girl finds herself adrift in a Welsh summer camp; a blind beggar scrambles for change at a South American crossroads, and a Moroccan mother wonders if her son is really a saint. The stories in x 24 transcend location, nationality, reality and time; disconcerting at times for their sheer irreverence, each tale has that quality of rare insight that makes for compelling reading.