About
Tan Twan Eng was born in Penang, but lived in various places in Malaysia as a child. Tan studied law through the University of London, and later worked as an advocate and solicitor in one of Kuala Lumpur's most reputable law firms before becoming a full-time writer. He has a first-dan ranking in aikido and currently lives in Cape Town.
His first novel, The Gift of Rain, was published in 2007 and long-listed for the Man Booker Prize that year. It is set in Penang in the years 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 and French.
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.
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Author website