An extract from The South by Tash Aw
‘She has imagined this moment of return many times over the past decade, recreating every detail of the house as she approaches it’
Tash Aw interview: ‘I’ve wanted to write this novel for years – some books have a long gestation period’
The author of The South, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, reflects on the inspirations behind the novel, the books that shaped him, and his need for peace, quiet and coffee in order to write
The inspirations behind my Booker-longlisted book
I’ve wanted to write this novel for many years, but some books have a long gestation period. It’s the story of a very ordinary family that in some ways resembles my own, and I needed time to work out how best to tell it.
The book that made me fall in love with reading
I was about 12 or 13 when I read Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, which propelled me from the world of childhood reading into what I recognised as the kind of reading I’d want to do for the rest of my life – books that dealt with the complex struggles of the human experience.
The book that made me want to become a writer
Toni Morrison’s Beloved, because it was a book I dreamed of emulating, knowing that I could never match its greatness. I still feel the same about both the writer and book now.
The book I read again and again
I’m currently re-reading Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, which is meant to be read repeatedly; meant to be savoured and grappled with; meant to inspire both wonder and at times boredom, but mainly, as the years go by, wonder. It’s a very long work and I’m only on my second reading in as many decades, but yes, my memory of characters and scenes changes in a magical way, which isn’t so surprising given that the book is about how we remember life.
Buy the book
James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son, which I read in my late teens, somehow changed not so much the world but the way I perceived my relationship to the world
The book that changed the way I think about the world
There are many, but one that comes to mind often is James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son, which I read in my late teens and somehow changed not so much the world but the way I perceived my relationship to the world, and in particular Malaysia, where I had spent virtually all my life up until then. Even though my circumstances were so different from Baldwin’s, I saw myself mirrored in so much of what he described.
The book that changed the way I think about the novel
Almost any book by Marguerite Duras, but especially – since they were the first of her works that I read – The Ravishing of Lol Stein andThe Lover still possess the power to make me reflect on what is possible for a writer to achieve. She was so prolific and the quality of her work is sometimes uneven, but she achieves so much freedom on the page that even when I don’t love the book I am impressed by how little she cares for convention.
The book I’m reading right now
Ali Smith’s Artful, which for some reason I never got round to reading and which is the most dazzling questioning of form – what fiction and literary criticism mean to the reader, how we relate to texts and are often haunted by them; and despite its furious intellect it also manages to be intimate and moving in the most surprising way.
The Booker-nominated book everyone should read
Two books rush to mind immediately – Alan Hollinghurst’s The Folding Star; or Romesh Gunesekera’s Reef.
Where and when I most like to write, and the tools I need
At my desk (or any desk) in the morning, when I’m not yet fully awake, with peace and quiet and some coffee. I like to get to work before I’m fully aware of the outside world and its numerous demands. Apart from that, I’m not so fussy as to where I write.
My dream book club, what we’d read, and where we’d meet
Too difficult to conjure imaginary guests! I’m lucky, I have two or three close friends who are writers, and with whom I talk about books over dinner – so I have the best of both worlds, perfect dinner party guests plus informal book club.
