The Harmony Silk Factory is an excellent read for those who love historical fiction with a hint of romance. Tash Aw masterfully weaves together the perspectives of multiple characters, including a notorious Chinaman, a beautiful but tragic woman, a Japanese officer, and an Englishman. The journey that these characters take into the jungle reveals not only their personal struggles, but also cultural tensions of the era. Suspenseful and haunting, this novel is a must-read for those interested in Southeast Asian history and diverse perspectives.

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• Booker Prize Nominee for Longlist (2005)
• Guardian First Book Award Nominee for Longlist (2005)
• Whitbread Award for First Novel (2005)
• Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book in South East Asia and Pacific (2006)

A landmark work of fiction from one of Britain’s most exciting new 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 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.

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