Tash Aw

In this stunning new novel, Tash Aw charts the overlapping lives of migrant Malaysian workers, forging lives for themselves in sprawling Shanghai. Justin is from a family of successful property developers. Phoebe has come to China buoyed with hope, but her dreams are shattered within hours as the job she has come for seems never to have existed. Gary is a successful pop artist, but his fans and marketing machine disappear after a bar-room brawl. Yinghui has businesses that are going well but must make decisions about her life. And then there is Walter, the shadowy billionaire, ruthless and manipulative, ultimately alone in the world. In 'Five Star Billionaire', Tash Aw charts the weave of their journeys in the new China, counterpointing their adventures with the old life they have left behind in Malaysia. The result is a brilliant examination of the migrations that are shaping the new city experiences all over the world, and their effect on myriad individual lives.

A brilliant novel from a genuinely exciting new voice in British fiction. A novel for anyone who enjoyed The English Patient. Set in Malaysia in the 1930s and 40s, with the rumbling of the Second World War in the background and the Japanese about to invade, The Harmony Silk Factory is the story of four people: Johnny, an infamous Chinaman -- a salesman, a fraudster, possibly a murderer -- whose shop house, The Harmony Silk Factory, he uses as a front for his illegal businesses; Snow Soong, the beautiful daughter of one of the Kinta Valley's most prominent families, who dies giving birth to one of the novel's narrators; Kunichika, a Japanese officer who loves Snow too; and an Englishman, Peter Wormwood, who went to Malaysia like many English but never came back, who also loved Snow to the end of his life. A journey the four of them take into the jungle has a devastating effect on all of them, and brilliantly exposes the cultural tensions of the era. Haunting, highly original, The Harmony Silk Factory is suspenseful to the last page.

Pocos lugares han sufrido una transformación tan radical como la de Asia en estas últimas décadas. La vida de cada generación ha resultado ser muy diferente a la de la anterior y la siguiente. En este caos identitario, donde se mezclan pueblos rurales y megaciudades, resulta complicado no perder el tren del progreso, conciliar las tensiones entre oriente y occidente, y a la vez mantener las tradiciones y los vinculos con las generaciones previas. Tash Aw reflexiona sobre esto de forma personal. Sus abuelos emigraron en barca desde China a Malasia en 1920. Sus padres vivieron en un pueblo rural de Malasia. Tash Aw vivio su infancia alli, pero se educo y paso gran parte de su vida adulta en Singapur y el Reino Unido. ¿Hay algo que conecte estas tres generaciones? ¿Como construye su identidad a partir de estas tres historias?

El fascinante diario de viaje de cuatro personas a la enigmática Malasia rural del siglo XX. El director de la famosa Fábrica de Sedas Harmony; su esposa; su mejor y único amigo, Peter Wormwood, y el señor Kunichika, un japonés brillante y seductor, viajan por placer a un remoto archipiélago del estrecho de Malaca. La jornada revela las complejidades culturales y políticas de la época y apunta hacia el enigma que planea sobre esta original novela: quién es realmente Johnny Lim, un héroe o un colaboracionista traidor...

A brilliant novel from a genuinely exciting new voice in British fiction. A novel for anyone who enjoyed The English Patient. Set in Malaysia in the 1930s and 40s, with the rumbling of the Second World War in the background and the Japanese about to invade, The Harmony Silk Factory is the story of four people: Johnny, an infamous Chinaman - a salesman, a fraudster, possibly a murderer - whose shop house, The Harmony Silk Factory, he uses as a front for his illegal businesses; Snow Soong, the beautiful daughter of one of the Kinta Valley's most prominent families, who dies giving birth to one of the novel's narrators; Kunichika, a Japanese officer who loves Snow too; and an Englishman, Peter Wormwood, who went to Malaysia like many English but never came back, who also loved Snow to the end of his life. A journey the four of them take into the jungle has a devastating effect on all of them, and brilliantly exposes the cultural tensions of the era. Haunting, highly original, The Harmony Silk Factory is suspenseful to the last page.

Un viaje de placer a un remoto archipiélago del estrecho de Malaca, conocido como «las Siete Sirenas», es el epicentro del brillante debut literario de Tash Aw, que, siguiendo la huella de grandes escritores británicos de temas coloniales como Joseph Conrad o Somerset Maugham, explora la Malasia rural de la primera mitad del siglo XX. El grupo viajero lo componen Lim Seng Chin, más conocido como Johnny Lim, director de la famosa Fábrica de Sedas Harmony; su esposa, Snow Soong, la mujer más hermosa del valle; su mejor y único amigo, Peter Wormwood, un inglés que llegó a Malasia buscando el paraíso y nunca regresó a Inglaterra, y el señor Kunichika, un japonés brillante y seductor. La jornada tendrá efectos devastadores en todos ellos, poniendo de relieve las complejidades culturales y políticas de la época, y apuntando hacia el enigm a que planea sobre esta original novela: quién es realmente Johnny Lim. Desde la memoria y el relato de quienes lo rodean, emerge una figura que oscila entre el héroe patriota que se enfrenta a los invasores japoneses y el colaboracionista traidor que persigue sus intereses sin escrúpulos. Johnny Lim simboliza, con toda la complejidad del caso, una época y lugar que aún presenta ante nuestros ojos ese velo invisible de misterio y fascinación.

16-year-old Adam is an orphan three times over. He and his older brother, Johan, were abandoned by their mother as children; he watched as Johan was adopted and taken away by a wealthy couple; and he had to hide when Karl, the Dutch man who raised him, was arrested by soldiers during Sukarnos drive to purge 1960s Indonesia of its colonial past.Adam sets out on a quest to find Karl, but all he has to guide him are some old photos and letters, which send him to the colourful, dangerous capital, Jakarta. Johan, meanwhile, is living a seemingly carefree, privileged life in Malaysia, but is careening out of control, unable to forget the long-ago betrayal of his helpless, trusting brother.MAP OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD is a masterful novel, and confirms Tash Aw as one of the most exciting young writers at work today.

Longlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize, the overlapping lives of five newcomers to China's most dynamic city are the subject of this kaleidoscopic novel. Welcome to Shanghai. A restless metropolis where old traditions collide with new ambitions - a place where anything can happen and anyone can become Somebody. Golddigger, property magnate, pop star, entrepreneur and guru: five newcomers are lured by the promise of making fortunes and remaking identities. But they find their lives converging in unpredictable ways, as the Five Star Billionaire's lessons for success wreak havoc. For in a land where dreams may come true, nothing is ever quite as it seems...

Pocos lugares han sufrido una transformación tan radical como la de Asia en estas últimas decadas. La vida de cada generación ha resultado ser muy diferente a la de la anterior y la siguiente. En este caos identitario, donde se mezclan pueblos rurales y megaciudades, resulta complicado no perder el tren del progreso, conciliar las tensiones entre oriente y occidente, y a la vez mantener las tradiciones y los vinculos con las generaciones previas. Tash Aw reflexiona sobre esto de forma personal. Sus abuelos emigraron en barca desde China a Malasia en 1920. Sus padres vivieron en un pueblo rural de Malasia. Tash Aw vivio su infancia alli, pero se educo y paso gran parte de su vida adulta en Singapur y el Reino Unido. ¿Hay algo que conecte estas tres generaciones? ¿Como construye su identidad a partir de estas tres historias?