The South by Tash Aw

This was long listed for the 2025 Booker Prize, and as so often happens, I liked it better than some of the books that made it to the short list. It is also highly evocative of nominees for this particular prize, which is that the excellence of the prose outweighs the execution of the plot. In this case, maybe there is a reason this doesn't wind up quite as neatly, because it is the first of a quartet of novels about Malaysia. This is an ambitious portrayal of a family navigating profound transformation and the complexities of identity and belonging within Malaysia’s rich and challenging political context of the late 1990s. Following his grandfather’s passing, sixteen-year-old Jay ventures southward with his family to inspect their inherited failing farm. Blighted trees and drought-stricken fields greet them upon arrival. There are stories that are interwoven throughout the book of Jay and his family, as well as Chuan, who he meets in the south, and Chuan's family--one review likened the narrative of Jay's internal life with that of Jay Gatsby, and there is something to that as I think back. There is an awareness of historical and social fault lines that shine a light on what’s broken, what needs healing and how that affects each of them. Cultural displacement, the ambiguity of belonging, and unspoken wounds passed down through generations are central themes that echo throughout the novel.