The South
A Novel
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A luminous and intimate novel about the weight of inheritance, the bonds of loyalty, and the awakening of love, set against the backdrop of a changing Malaysia.
The South unfolds during a visit by the Lim family to their rural clan estate after a long absence. Jay, in his mid-teens, and his two older sisters are less than thrilled to leave their city for the remote house in the south, but their parents, Sui Ching and Jack, are adamant.
Jay finds he's expected to share a room with Chuan, the son of the estate's overseer, a bit older than Jay but seemingly much more mature and capable in the world. The two soon form an intense bond, but with their very different backgrounds, and even more disparate expectations for the future, the course of their relationship is always an unspoken question.
Meanwhile, change presses in, including the destruction of the farm's beloved orchards, and the sale of the estate is mooted. The relationships between Chuan's father and Jack and Sui Ching go deep, but pressures both internal and external threaten to sever old bonds and upend an entire way of life. The South, at once sweeping and intimate, is a masterful portrait of a family navigating a period of great transformation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The stellar latest from Aw (The Harmony Silk Factory) chronicles a sensitive boy's coming-of-age and his family's private pain. "Wayward" adolescent Jay is the youngest of the Lim family, who leave their unnamed Malaysian city during his summer break from high school for their small farm in the south. Aw evokes a mood of pervasive decline, describing the financial troubles plaguing the country, the farm's economic problems, and the deterioration of family patriarch Jack, a severe, unlikable math teacher. Against this melancholy backdrop, Aw masterfully juxtaposes the hopes and desires of the younger generation, crystallized in the tender, slow-burning relationship between Jay and a slightly older and stronger boy named Chuan, son of the farm's manager. Questions of how to manage one's inheritance, whether of material assets or emotional baggage, are central to the novel, as Aw explores how the characters, especially Jay's mother, Sui, feel indebted and trapped. Through alternating close-third perspective, and occasional first-person passages from Jay, Aw offers a clear view into the characters' inner lives, revealing their aching desires and the secret relationships and personal crises they hide from each other. In addition to the perceptive characterizations, Aw uses rich symbolism, such as the Lims' ever-present tamarind grove, alive and beautiful but terminally diseased. This masterwork of psychological realism brings to mind the classic novels of E.M. Forster.
