Whitbread Literary Awards

Tash Aw, or rather Aw Ta-Shii, has just won the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel. He's this Malaysian dude (from KL) who read law at Cambridge and practiced for a while but left his job to pursue a writing career. The Harmony Silk Factory and other Whitbread Winners: Click here.

Whitbread Awards are given out in appreciation of literary works which are enjoyable reads rather than the difficult artsy-fartsy prose which the Booker Prize recognizes.

I was talking to a friend of mine this summer who'd read the book, and he said it wasn't bad so maybe I'll have a shot at it sometime soon. I particularly remember said friend proudly adding that the book also mentioned Pahang, where said friend was from.

I thought it would be really good to get an interview with him so I've emailed my editor at LSE to check if they might want to run the story. Fingers crossed.