Hardback: Lee Hock Lye - known to his friends as Ah Hock - is a young man with vague ideas of living in a better place than the Malaysian village he is born into, where families harvest cockles from the polluted mudflats. He follows the rules and strives to improve himself in a country that promises riches and security to everyone, but in reality delivers them only to a chosen few. With Asian society changing around him, Ah Hock remains trapped in a world of poorly paid jobs that just about allow him to keep his head above water.
But what leads Ah Hock to kill a man?
We, the Survivors (2019) is a vivid and compelling description of the years building up to a shocking act of violence, a confession told over several days to a local journalist whose life has taken a very different course. Devastating and poignant, it is a portrait of an outsider like no other, an anti-nostalgic view of human life and the ravages of hope.
About the author: Tash Aw was born in Taipei to Malaysian parents. He grew up in Kuala Lumpur before moving to Britain to attend university. He is the author of three critically acclaimed novels – The Harmony Silk Factory (2005), which won the Whitbread First Novel Award and a regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize; Map of the Invisible World (2009) and Five Star Billionaire (2013) – and a work of non-fiction, The Face: Strangers on a Pier (2016), finalist for the LA Times Book Prize. His novels have twice been longlisted for the MAN Booker prize and been translated into 23 languages.
His work has won an O Henry Prize and been published in The New Yorker, the London Review of Books, A Public Space and the landmark Granta 100, amongst others. He is also a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times.
Rating: 5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment