Publishers Weekly
★ 07/29/2019
Aw’s captivating novel (after Five Star Billionaire) revolves around a fateful moment of violence set against the backdrop of an ever-changing Malaysia. In an almost stream-of-consciousness work, readers become the proverbial fly on the wall as the main character, Ah Hock, a convicted murderer, tells his tale to a graduate student working on a book. In alternating chapters of Ah Hock’s rambling confession and brief personal exchanges between Hock and his interviewer, Hock’s story wanders through his poverty-ridden upbringing with a single mother, his unsuccessful marriage, his murder trial, his days in prison, and, finally, to the night he committed murder. A simple man, Hock has spent his life believing hard work would bring success; as the manager of a fish farm, he reaches that success, but when his workers develop cholera, he’s forced to find replacements. Desperate for a solution, Hock seeks help from a boyhood friend now trafficking illegal workers, and this fateful decision leads him to an act of violence he never thought himself capable of. As Hock and his interviewer seek to understand what brought him to kill, readers are drawn into a Malaysia overwhelmed with thousands of immigrants seeking refuge, employment, and survival. Aw’s potent work entraps readers in the slow, fateful descent of its main character, witnessing his life spiral to its inevitable conclusion. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
[Aw’s] Asia is neither sentimental nor a stereotype . . . Aw is a precise stylist; with a few, lean images, he evokes a country on the cusp of change: a sofa still sheathed in plastic to protect it from everyday life, the rusting tin for Danish butter cookies now holding a man’s life savings, the small-time crook with three rings on each hand and cash held together with a rubber band.”
—Hannah Beech, The New York Times Book Review
“Ah Hock is an excellent protagonist, among the best I've encountered in years. He’s lovable and empathy-stirring, and his mix of remorse, acceptance, and hope is profoundly moving. Reading him is a pleasure, as is reading Aw’s prose. Aw is a beautiful writer who— this is rare— excels at switching beauty off, or dimming it almost to nothing.”
—Lily Meyer, NPR
“Aw masterfully conveys his protagonist’s specificity while also weaving together a larger picture of the class divisions, racial biases, unjust working conditions, and gender roles that pulse under the surface . . . A raw depiction of one man’s troubled life and the web of social forces that worked to shape it.” —Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
“Aw’s captivating novel revolves around a fateful moment of violence set against the backdrop of an ever-changing Malaysia. In an almost stream-of-consciousness work, readers become the proverbial fly on the wall . . . Aw’s potent work entraps readers in the slow, fateful descent of its main character, witnessing his life spiral to its inevitable conclusion.” —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
“[From his] devastating opening line . . . Aw (Five Star Billionaire, 2013) savagely erases any doubt that only the fittest survive in the ruthless world of global capitalism.” —Booklist (Starred Review)
“[Aw’s] achievement is to make a global story personal . . . [We, the Survivors] can’t easily be pushed out of mind.” —Anthony Cummins, The Guardian
“Aw skillfully tempts the reader through the book by describing the killing in a fragmented way: the desire to know what happened keeps you engaged.” —Sunday Times (UK)
“Brilliantly executed . . . For all the injustice, inequality and unhappiness that We, the Survivors portrays, there is a strange tranquility as it reaches its thorny climax, as if accepting the toxins of modern society is the first step to neutralizing them” —Hilary A. White, Irish Independent
“The ironically-titled We, the Survivors is the story of billions of human beings today—but not one reader. This is the tale of poor people—refugees, day laborers—whose lives are ruled by cruel circumstance and extreme poverty, whose struggles end in defeat, who are not meant to survive. What would be abstract in a report is here given burning, lacerated flesh. In the twenty-first century it is our Everyman, alas.”
—Edmund White, author of The Unpunished Vice
“Tash Aw’s new novel succeeds in achieving many feats: it is at once the great novel on today’s racism that we have been waiting for; a masterly fresco of Southeast Asia, a region of the world that remains underrepresented in literature; and a magnificent story . . . We, The Survivors is one of the most beautiful and powerful books I’ve read in years.” —Édouard Louis, author of History of Violence
“Utterly absorbing to the last word . . . With deep empathy combined with a sharp, unflinching gaze. As with his other books, we end up loving the characters we might otherwise hate, and arguing with those we might have a natural affinity for. [Aw] manages to turn our assumptions inside out, all while creating a world that would, without him, remain out of reach and invisible.”—Tahmima Anam, author of A Golden Age
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2019-06-17
A rumination on the way systems of power and currents of hope in modern-day Malaysia can influence a life.
When Lee Hock Lye clubs a Bangladeshi stranger to death with a two-foot piece of wood, everyone is searching for a motive. Even after Ah Hock has served his three-year prison sentence, an American-educated sociology student wants to interview him for her dissertation. She wants to understand his story. "Why? That's what you want to know. Just like everyone else," he confronts her early in the novel, "But like the others, you're going to be disappointed." Ah Hock himself has spent months reckoning with the why of it all, but to no end. "I tried to excavate the layers of my thoughts," he explains, "digging patiently the way I used to in the mud on our farm when I was a child." Still, Ah Hock invites the student into his home and, over the course of several months, shares the details of his past, hoping she can "set the record straight" where his defense attorney got it wrong. Aw (Five Star Billionaire, 2013, etc.) drops readers into each phase of Ah Hock's life, beginning with his birth in a small Malaysian fishing village, moving through his childhood days as a passive onlooker to his friend Keong's reckless ambition, and capturing in warm detail the sense of "permanence" and "abundance" he once felt building a farm with his mother. As he crafts Ah Hock's narrative, Aw masterfully conveys his protagonist's specificity while also weaving together a larger picture of the class divisions, racial biases, unjust working conditions, and gender roles that pulse under the surface. Through his interviews with the student—and his reflections on his role as a subject—Ah Hock shares the vital pieces of his story that escaped cross-examination.
A raw depiction of one man's troubled life and the web of social forces that worked to shape it.
