Based on real events, Booker Prize-shortlisted Tan Twan Eng’s masterful novel of public morality and private truth examines love and betrayal under the shadow of Empire
The Gift of Rain
Written by Tan Twan Eng
- Longlisted
- The Man Booker Prize 2007
- Published by Myrmidon
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Set in Malaya during World War II, Tan Twan Eng’s coming-of-age novel is a powerful story of divided loyalties, moral dilemmas and human courage
Malaya, 1939. Sixteen-year-old Philip is of mixed British and Chinese heritage, and feels alienated from both communities. He forms an unexpected friendship with Hayato Endo, a Japanese diplomat who trains him in Aikido. But when the Japanese invade, Philip discovers Endo is a spy. Forced into collaborating with the Japanese to safeguard his family he becomes the ultimate outsider, trusted by none and hated by many. A tormented Philip decides to risk everything to make amends.
Tan Twan Eng
Tan Twan Eng was born in Penang, Malaysia, and worked as an advocate in one of Kuala Lumpur's leading law firms before becoming a full-time writer
More about Tan Twan Eng Other nominated books by Twan Eng Tan
Tan Twan Eng’s second novel is a tantalisingly evocative mystery set in Malaya in the late 1940s, a country in recovery from the Second World War