Tash Aw: The Harmony Silk Factory (June 2026)

This novel is set in Malaya just before the Japanese invasion and relates the life of enigmatic businessman Johnny Lim, son of Chinese migrant workers.

It is, however, told Rashomon style by three unreliable narrators which gave us much to discuss at our meeting, trying to go back over the character’s stories and what motivated them to exaggerate or lie, if indeed they did. Truth is very subjective, look at on-line reviews.

The historical background is real and the Malaysian countryside is very well described, as is its pre-war cultural and racial hierarchy.

Johnny’s son, Jasper, has researched his father’s life and career and we, at first, take his account at face value. He has amassed evidence, or so it seems, that Johnny, widowed when Jasper’s mother died in childbirth, had stopped at absolutely nothing to gain prestige and wealth. Jasper has attributed all manner of criminal behaviour to his father including murder, arson, wartime collaboration, stealing “taxes” to give to the Japanese and even betraying the resistance army.

It could be that he felt the need to aggrandise his father into a larger than life monstrous villain to try to make sense of his cruel and unloving behaviour towards his son.

Snow Soong, Jasper’s mother, is the second narrator. She keeps a journal during a nightmarish belated honeymoon to the mysterious Seven Maidens. The couple are accompanied by two Englishmen, one a typical colonial type and the other, Peter, who is unconventional and doesn’t fit into the rigid expat society.

Also joining them is Kunichika, later revealed to be a member of the ruthless Japanese army secret police. Snow is deeply attracted to him and it is strongly suggested that he is Jasper’s father.

Snow writes that she regrets her marriage to the uneducated and apathetic Johnny and, apparently, it has not been consummated. It could be that she is excusing herself for her affair.

Peter is towards the end of his life when he tells his side of the story. He says that Johnny regarded him as his friend and confidant. He loved Johnny and also cared for Snow and there is no hint of suspicion that Johnny was a criminal mastermind. We are, of course, seeing him from the viewpoint of Peter, a perpetually lonely man who valued this rare friendship.

This novel challenged us by not providing answers to who Johnny really is. Normally there is a moment when everything becomes clear and without this resolution the story has a haunting quality. Some of us enjoyed that aspect of the novel but others wanted to read Johnny’s true version of events.

3.5/5