Tan Twan Eng


Tan Twan Eng is a Malaysian novelist known for being the first Malaysian recipient of the Man Asian Literary Prize., the first Malaysian novelist to be shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and the first Malaysian author to win the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

Background and life

Tan was born in Penang and grew up in Kuala Lumpur. He is of the Straits Chinese descent. Tan speaks mainly English, Hokkien, and Cantonese.
Tan studied law at the University of London, and later worked as an advocate and solicitor in one of Kuala Lumpur's law firms before becoming a full-time writer.
He has a first-dan ranking in aikido and lives in Malaysia.

Career

His first novel, The Gift of Rain, published in 2007, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. It is set in Penang before and during the Japanese occupation of Malaya in World War II. The Gift of Rain has been translated into Italian, Spanish, Greek, Romanian, Czech, Serbian, French, Russian and Hungarian.
His second novel, The Garden of Evening Mists, was published in 2012. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012 and won the Man Asian Literary Prize, and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.
Tan has spoken at literary festivals, including the Singapore Writers Festival, the Ubud Writers' Festival in Bali, the Asia Man Booker Festival in Hong Kong, the Shanghai International Literary Festival, the Perth Writers Festival, the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne, Australia, and the Franschhoek Literary Festival in South Africa.

Works