Description

This is the story of Johnny Lim, textile merchant, petty crook and inventor of the Amazing Toddy Machine, and his marriage to the beautiful Snow Soong.

In 1940, with the Japanese about to invade Malaysia, Johnny and Snow embark on their honeymoon to the mysterious Seven Mainden Islands, accompanied by a mercurial Japanese professor and Peter Wormwood, and Englishman adriff. Many years later, Wormwood looks back on this defining journey, while Snow s son goes in search of the truth of his mother and the infamous Chinese man she married.

Malaysian author Tash Aw s first novel, The Harmony Silk Factory, won the Costa Award for First Novel in 2005.