Items related to The Harmony Silk Factory
Synopsis
Book by Aw, Tash
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About the Author
Tash Aw is a recent graduate of UEA. He is Malaysian by birth but now lives in London. This is his first novel.
From Publishers Weekly
Aw slices his first novel into three segments, wherein three characters dissect the nature of Johnny Lim, a controversial figure in 1940s Malaysia. Depending on the teller, Johnny was a Communist leader, an informer for the Japanese, a dangerous black-market trader, a working-class Chinese man too in awe of his aristocratic wife to have sex with her, or a loyal friend. Long after Johnny's death, we hear these conflicting accounts from his grown son, Jasper; his wife, Snow (through the lens of her 1941 diary); and his English expatriate friend, Peter Wormwood. The chief benefit of this structural trick is to make palpable the limitations of each character's perspective, and that's no mean feat. But Aw's prose, though often witty and taut, is not equally convincing in all its guises. Jasper is the typical alienated son who burns to discover all the crimes his father committed; this also makes him the typical unreliable narrator (when his father kills a mosquito that had bitten him, Jasper cites this as proof of an innate "streak of malice"). When Snow takes over, Johnny suddenly resembles a more ordinary man, while she—adored by her son, whose birth caused her death—reveals herself to be a fallible character and an unfaithful wife. The most boisterous and enjoyable thread of this story belongs to Peter, with whose chipper English patter Aw, oddly enough, seems most at home.
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- PublisherHarperPerennial
- Publication date2005
- ISBN 10 0007204515
- ISBN 13 9780007204519
- BindingPaperback
- LanguageEnglish
- Number of pages384
- Rating
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The Harmony Silk Factory
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The Harmony Silk Factory
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The Harmony Silk Factory
Published by
Fourth Estate 04/07/2005, 2005
ISBN 10: 0007204515
ISBN 13: 9780007204519
Used
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The Harmony Silk Factory
Published by
HarperCollins Publishers, United Kingdom, London, 2005
ISBN 10: 0007204515
ISBN 13: 9780007204519
Used
Paperback
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
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Paperback. Condition: Very Good. A landmark work of fiction from one of Britains most exciting new writers: The Harmony Silk Factory is a devastating love story set against the turmoil of mid-twentieth century Malaysia. 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 Valleys most prominent families, who dies giving birth to one of the novels 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. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR003365816
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The Harmony Silk Factory
Published by
Fourth Estate 04/07/2005, 2005
ISBN 10: 0007204515
ISBN 13: 9780007204519
Used
Softcover
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Soft cover. Condition: Good. Some signs of edgewear. Includes "P.S. Ideas, Interviews & features." section. Seller Inventory # 19041002
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The Harmony Silk Factory
Seller: Better World Books Ltd, Dunfermline, United Kingdom
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Condition: Good. Ships from the UK. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 38270630-20
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