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Cover of The Harmony Silk Factory

Nominee · The Booker Prize 2005

The Harmony Silk Factory

by Tash Aw

2005 novel by Tash Aw

This novel juxtaposes three accounts of the life of an enigmatic man at a pivotal and haunting moment in Malaysian history. The author 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 of his life.

Synopsis from Open Library.

Language
English
Genre
historical fiction

The Booker Prize 2005

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