We, The Survivors

ISBN: 9780008318581
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Product Details

Publisher,4th Edition
Publication Date,
Format, Paperback
Weight, 420 g
No. of Pages,

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Ah Hock is an ordinary, uneducated man born in a Malaysian fishing village and now trying to make his way in a country that promises riches and security to everyone, but delivers them only to a chosen few. With Asian society changing around him, like many he remains trapped in a world of poorly paid jobs that just about allow him to keep his head above water but ultimately lead him to murder a migrant worker from Bangladesh.

In the tradition of Camus and Houellebecq, Ah Hock's vivid and compelling description of the years building up to this appalling act of violence - told over several days to a local journalist whose life has taken a different course - is a portrait of an outsider like no other, an anti-nostalgic view of human life and the ravages of hope. It is the work of a writer at the peak of his powers.

Customer Reviews

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I
Ikram Kausari
A Malaysian-Chinese man from a coastal village that accidentally murdered a Bangladeshi.

This book took me quite a while to read and digest. It’s a harrowing, fairly depressing narrative yet full of important topics that are often overlooked and not explored as they make us uncomfortable.

Ah Hock has murdered a man and spent time working through a prison sentence. Now released a PhD student contacts him, wanting to research what led him to the murder over the course of his life. We, the reader, are very much the researcher reviewing the information given, taking it in, assessing, learning...

This is a book about migrant workers, about desperation, about deep ingrained inequality and prejudice. It’s a book about poverty, about ideas of cause and effect, it’s about people’s who have no opportunities and whose hope is destroyed time and time again. It’s about power, relationships and structures of hierarchy and how they are maintained.
It’s quite a moving book and you finish the last page to reflect at how deeply unjust and divided our world is.

It’s a heavy read and far from uplifting but extremely important. It will be staying with me for quite some time.

A
Anis Syahira Mhd Yusof
Tash Aw

We, the Survivors is a brilliant and fascinating portrayal of a guy striving to make the best of his situation.