The Harmony Silk Factory

Synopsis

Between the wars, Johnny Lim becomes a successful businessman running Tiger Tan’s textile shop in Kampar, a town near Ipoh in the tin-mining Kinta Valley of Malaysia. He marries Snow Soong, the beautiful daughter of TK Soong, the richest man in the valley. They go on a belated honeymoon to the mysterious Seven Maidens islands. Accompanying them are Kunichika Mamoru, a Japanese academic, who will become head of the Kempeitai, the secret police, during the Japanese occupation; Peter Wormwood, an English drifter who has become Johnny’s friend and confidante; and Frederick Honey, a tin mine manager. Later, the shop burns down, and Johnny opens the Harmony Silk Factory, which does very well during the occupation and after. In 1942, Snow dies giving birth to her son, Jasper.

The novel is narrated in three overlapping sections. First, Jasper tells what he knows of his father’s life. Then we read extracts from Snow’s diary, which was handed to Jasper at his father’s funeral. In the third, Peter is now old and living in a care home. He remembers his friendship with Johnny, and what happened on the trip to the Seven Maidens, where he swiped Snow’s diary.

Reception

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