Map of the Invisible World

Map of the Invisible World

'Bewitchingly written and gracefully assured … the story Aw tells is mercilessly gripping and his prose is lucid, uncluttered, beautiful … Aw orchestrates a graceful ballet of dissonances and congruences, of echoes and discords' The Times on The Harmony Silk Factory

Tash Aw gained international acclaim with his debut novel The Harmony Silk Factory, which in 2005 won the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Novel - as well as being long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.

Aw's novel is the story of two orphaned brothers in Indonesia in the 1960s, who are separated at a very young age. One remains in Indonesia where he is adopted by a Dutch painter; the other is taken to Kuala Lumpur to live with a rich Malaysian family. Now they are in their teens, almost men, and Indonesia is becoming increasingly unstable in the last year of Sukarno's rule - his famous Year of Living Dangerously - and the brothers' lives are poised on the edge of great change.

Aw says, 'I wanted to write a story about two countries that have always thought of themselves as brothers but have very differing paths through history, very differing temperaments. My preoccupation as a novelist also lies in the lives of "ordinary people" and not overtly exceptional or colourful characters. Growing up in Asia, I was aware of how sharply polarised society was, and still is, between the educated middle classes, who form the minority of the population and who lead comfortable lives, and the less fortunate, uneducated people who form the majority of the population but are often overlooked.'

Tell us about your appearances at the Sydney Writers Festival:

Tash Aw : Well I have been invited to attend the festival and speak at four sessions, over the 22nd to the 24th of May.


Tell us about your book, Map of the Invisible World:

Tash Aw : Well it's a book set in Indonesia and Malaysia in the early part of the 1960's. It is about two orphan brothers who are separated at a very early age, one goes to live in Malaysia with quite a well-off middle class family and the other stays behind in Indonesia, where he is adopted by a Dutch painter, who is taken away, it is the end of Sukarno's rule, and Indonesia is purging the country of all remaining foreigners and slowly causing chaos. The younger brother has to go off and find his foster father and find his own way in life.


Where did the idea for the book come from?

Tash Aw : Well I always liked the idea, when I was growing up in Malaysia, Indonesia was always talked about as the 'big brother' of the countries- two countries orphaned. In fact we are both quite different so I always wanted to write a book, a story set in the two counties, and because of the idea of brothers I had the idea of two brothers who come of the same part of the world but who are separated, and take two very different paths through life.


What research went into this book?

Tash Aw : Well I did a lot of library and archival work, just to get the politics of the 60's right, it was a very turbulent time and the politics where very complicated. I had to do a lot of work around the subject, but I also spoke to as many people as possible, who lived in Jakarta in the early 60's to get a flavour of what life was like.

Also, Jakarta is a city I know very well, my father lived and worked there for many years, so I have always known it.


You have received a lot of praise from various sectors of the writing industry, how does this make you feel?

Tash Aw : (laughs) I am quite good at just ignoring that. I don't really pay any attention to it, it is my job to concentrate on my work. When I sit down in front of a blank screen or page of a morning, I am still the same old writer, I always was. The challenge is that I should continue the same, no matter what anyone says about you. I know that there are certain things I have to do as a writer and no matter what anyone says about me, it doesn't change.


Are you working on a project at the moment?

Tash Aw : Yes, I am working on a project at the moment, it is still in it's early stages, it might still change. It is a book about people who go to China to seek fame and fortune.


Praise for The Harmony Silk Factory:

'Aw is a talented new writer and The Harmony Silk Factory is a compelling read' The Age
'A fine, strong, confident novel - and what a storyteller Tash Aw is. Unputdownable' Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
'The Harmony Silk Factory is an utterly remarkable debut. It's a dream of a novel, lovely and exquisite and intense, and reveals Tash Aw's already prodigious gift for storytelling; this young writer has come to us fully formed, and with the promise of a long and significant career' Chang-rae Lee
'Tash Aw's striking debut is as elusive as it is exotic. Aw is a skilled and sensitive writer' Daily Mail
'Absorbing … a rich, intense novel … The strength of Tash Aw's writing can be seen in the three narratives. Each voice is distinct and each offers a subtly different viewpoint, remaking the material afresh … The beauty and danger of nature are everywhere in this delicately drawn novel' Times Literary Supplement
'Beautifully composed and memorable … mesmerizing … Clearly Tash Aw is a writer to watch, with a first book anyone who travels by fiction will want to read' San Francisco Chronicle
'[Aw] writes with what seems like effortless fluidity … Dazzling' The Guardian

Tash Aw was born in Taipei to Malaysian parents. His family returned to Malaysia when he was two and he grew up in Kuala Lumpur, where he was educated at a Catholic school before moving to England at the age of 18 to attend university. He began writing short stories upon moving to London after graduating, and worked at odd jobs for 18 months before training and working as a lawyer in the city. It was during this time that he started work on The Harmony Silk Factory, writing in the evenings and at weekends. In 2002 he left his job to complete the novel, which was finished a year later, nearly five years after its conception. A frequent contributor to the BBC, he is often invited to comment on South East Asian literature, film and culture. Aw now lives in Islington, London

Map of the Invisible World
Harper Collins Publishing
Author: Tash Aw
ISBN: 9780732288747
Price: $32.99

Interview by Brooke Hunter