The Harmony Silk Factory

Aw, Tash

ISBN 10: 000718204X / ISBN 13: 9780007182046

Published by Fourth Estate / HarperCollins Publishers, London, 2005

About this Item

First edition, first impression with '1' on copyright page. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, WITHOUT DEDICATION, ON TITLE PAGE. Some slight edge wear and two short closed tears to top of jacket, page 348 slightly crumpled, corners slightly bruised, not price clipped (£12.99), no inscriptions, internally clean tight and square, overall a vg+ copy. 362pp. 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.

Seller Inventory # 004097

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Harmony Silk Factory
• Publisher: Fourth Estate / HarperCollins Publishers, London
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 000718204X
• ISBN 13: 9780007182046
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Jacket by Sarah Christie
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Tash Aw’s debut novel The Harmony Silk Factory was the winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award and Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Novel, as well as being longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He was born in Malaysia and now lives in London.