Tash Aw

Malaysia

Tash Aw

The Malaysian author Tash Aw was born in 1971 and grew up in Kuala Lumpur before moving to Great Britain, where he studied law at Cambridge University and at the University of Warwick. He became renowned with his first novel, The Harmony Silk Factory in 2005. Aw has won numerous awards, and his work has been translated into 23 languages. In 2024, he will be on a residency with the DAAD Artist-in-Berlin program.
In his second novel, Map of the Invisible World (2009), Aw connected a personal fate with reflections on Indonesia’s path toward independence and the themes of homeland and integration. In We, the Survivors (2019), Aw tells the story of a worker from a Malaysian fishing village searching for wealth and security who moves from one job to another and ultimately murders a migrant worker from Bangladesh. With his precise depiction of socio-economic relations and his analysis of violence and speechlessness, Aw shows how quickly a man’s life can be undone.
In September, his family history, The Face: Strangers on a Pier, will be published.


Wir, die Überlebenden. Roman. Luchterhand 2022
Die Seidenmanufaktur «Zur schönen Harmonie». Roman. Rowohlt, 2006
Alle: Aus dem Englischen von Pociao und Roberto de Hollanda

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29th Leukerbad International Literary Festival: 6.20.–22.2025