Writing an Epic

Tash Aw was interviewed by Alex Clark for the Guardian about storytelling, family silences – and the legacy of colonialism.

“Twenty years into his life as a published novelist, Tash Aw is considering the creative freedom that comes with surrendering control: of allowing himself to write without fully understanding how a novel will eventually take shape, what its characters’ trajectories will look like, what they’re thinking and feeling. We are talking about The South, the first in a planned quartet of novels exploring the lives of the Lim family; Aw is halfway through writing the second instalment, which, he tells me, is ‘not going to plan, but going well’.”

Read more here.