The Harmony Silk Factory

by

Paperback, 416 pages

English language

Published Feb. 7, 2006 by Riverhead Books.

ISBN:
9781594481741

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5 stars (1 review)

The Harmony Silk Factory (2005) is Tash Aw's critically acclaimed first novel, set in 1940s British-ruled Malaya, which is now called Malaysia. It was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the Whitbread Book Awards for First Novel Award. The novel incorporates some historical events, and its characters may temporarily take the roles of real people, for example Johnny Lim acts as Lai Teck in the Batu Caves massacre, though there is otherwise little similarity between them.

1 edition

reviewed The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw

Couldn't stop reading this brilliant story of 1940s Malaya

5 stars

I couldn't stop reading this. A brilliant, totally captivating story set in mostly in 1940s Malaya. It's a mix of fact and fiction (even though I've been to Malaysia and the Batu Caves outside KL, I never knew about the Batu Caves Massacre, where most of the leaders of the communist Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPSJA) were betrayed and killed). But more than anything, it's a story of love and a more personal kind of betrayal - the story of one man told from three very different perspectives.