Tash Aw

Malaysians should be proud of their writers who make it big.

Back in January, The Independent listed the publishing events of the year, and Tash Aw's book was seen as one of the most promising novels of 2005. The Harmony Silk Factory was released worldwide six weeks ago to great acclaim. Their have been reviews in the major British newspapers. The novel is set in the Kinta Valley.

There has been nary a whisper of it in our press. Would anyone here have heard of it if not for the western press? I was the first person to mention his name on the e-groups I belong to and to Raman of Silverfish, who then featured a short piece on him on his website. (Tash Aw's publicist wrote to Raman to say thanks.)

Copies still have not materialised in the bookshops here. What are the distributors (in this case MPH) doing?

I was going to buy the book online back in February. (Hint - you can get lovely cheap uncorrected proofs of books at abebooks in advanced of release dates). But I thought hey, the local distributor needs the business and so does my friendly bookseller, Raman, who said that the book would be in end of March. So I am still waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting ...

While I was in the shop yesterday, the MPH rep. dropped by and got an earful from me. Poor guy facing ther bookdeprived wrath of a big Mat Salleh couldn't make any excuses. "We're bringing him in," he said, finally. Not just the books, the author? Is there some big event planned which is at present top-secret-hush-hush?

I certainly hope so, because book distributing, bookselling, bookpromoting folks have some making up to do ...

But as Raman said to me the other day "How many people in KL do you think actually care about books and writers?"