The South by Tash Aw (LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025) (Pub 25/2/25)

A radiant novel of the longing that blooms between two boys over the course of one summer – about family, desire, and what we inherit – from celebrated author Tash Aw.

When his grandfather dies, a boy named Jay travels south with his family to the property he left them, a once flourishing farm that has fallen into disrepair. The trees are diseased, the fields parched from months of drought.

Still, Jay’s father, Jack, sends him out to work the land, or whatever land is left. Over the course of these hot, dense days, Jay finds himself drawn to Chuan, the son of the farm’s manager, different from him in every way except for one.

Out in the fields, and on the streets into town, the charge between the boys intensifies. Inside the house, the other family members confront their own regrets, and begin to drift apart. Like the land around them, they are powerless to resist the global forces that threaten to render their lives obsolete.

At once sweeping and intimate, The South is a story of what happens when private and public lives collide. It is the first in a quartet of novels that form Tash Aw’s masterful portrait of a family navigating a period of great change – a reimagined epic for our times.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fourth Estate (25 February 2025)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 000863761X

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008637613

Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 294 g

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.5 x 2.5 x 21.6 cm

Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ United Kingdom

Review

‘A spellbinding novel by a Malaysian heir to Chekhov. A book that reveals Aw’s greatest strength as a novelist – an ability to subtly shift and unsettle your perceptions of characters and situations’ The Times

‘This may be Booker-longlisted Tash Aw’s best book yet. Mesmerising’London Standard