The Harmony Silk Factory

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.

Synopsis

From the bookjacket

"The Harmony Silk Factory is the textiles store run by Johnny Lim, a Chinese peasant living in a rural region of Malaya, a British colony in Southeast Asia in the first half of the twentieth century. The factory 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. "

Reception

Booklist called The Harmony Silk Factory "an impressive contribution to a literature for which Conrad and Maugham are famous".^[1] The Guardian said the book was "a little rough and transparent in places", but that Aw "writes with what seems like effortless fluidity".^[2] Time Magazine wrote that Aw "produced a tale of love and betrayal that transcends mere location".^[3] Publishers Weekly also reviewed the book, writing "Aw's prose, though often witty and taut, is not equally convincing in all its guises".^[4]

References