Love the writing and enjoyed the story a lot. I love anything to do with Asian literature and Malaysian culture is something not explored enough.

I was very excited about this book because Five Star Billionaire was one of my favorite books the year it came out. Unfortunately, after reading about a quarter of this one, I just couldn't get into the narrative. The narrator's story didn't catch my interest, so I had to DNF.

Literary fiction at its best,Tash Aw is a master of writing.A moving emotional read voiced that will stay with me.Highly recommend. @netgalley#Wethesurvivors

In We, the Survivors, Tash Aw presents the plight of outsiders living on the fringe of Malaysian society. Readers know almost from the start that the main character, Ah Hock, is an ex-con who served time for murder.

Through his long monologues as he is interviewed by a privileged sociology post-grad recently returned from studies in the U.S. , Ah Hock’s complex story slowly unwinds in a non-chronological order, now and then approaching the murder he committed nearly a decade earlier, but repeatedly winding back the clock to fill in details of his childhood, his marriage, and his series of jobs, frequently coming back to his ill-fated friendship with Keong, the boyhood bully Ah Hock knows he should have said a permanent good-bye to years ago.

Ah Hock struggles to find his place in modern Malaysia where all the best job opportunities go to native Malaysians, not to the descendant of Chinese immigrant grandparents such as he, certainly not to more recent immigrants and refugees including Indonesians, Bangladeshis, and Rohingya that come and go in the story.
Bit by bit, readers come to know Ah Hock—his strengths and weaknesses, the obstacles he must confront and the modest successes he achieves, his life before prison and his life after.
.
Do not expect a plot-driven novel propelled by cliff-hanger chapter endings. We, the Survivors is a character-driven novel focusing on one largely insignificant “little guy” whose life takes on significance as he tries, not always in the best ways, to deal with whatever people and situations confront him. Although slow-paced, Tash Aw's latest novel maintained my sociological and psychological interest.

Thanks to Farrar, Strauss and Giroux and NetGalley for providing an Advance Reader Copy.

This read was somewhat reminiscent of Pachinko for me, a book I loved. Set in Malaysia, We, The Survivors follows Ah Hock throughout a tumultuous life. We also meet his friends, family, and supporting characters. This was a slow burn sort of read, but I loved it for the time, place, and one man's circumstances it evoked so vividly.

Ah Hock narrates his story before and after his life in prison to Su-Min, a sociology postgraduate, who's planning on writing a book about him.

The narration doesn't take us directly to what happened on that fateful night of the murder, but takes a detour to the life of Ah Hock as a teenager in a hardscrabble backwater village called Bagan Sungai Yu in Kuala Selangor, where he became 'friends' with Keong, a wannabe gangster; and his life when he moved to Kuala Lumpur, secured himself a more stable job and got married.

Then one day, Keong, after 'disappearing' from his life for 10 years, called him out of the blue. Just like that, his life took a wild turn. As much as he tried to avoid him, Fate kept pulling him back to Keong. To be connected to someone like Keong is somewhat like a curse, nothing good ever comes out of it.

This book made me reminisce my good old childhood days in one of the small states in Malaysia. I had some school friends who were just like Keong, gangster wannabes some of whom were small-time ones, openly boasting about their 'gangs'; days of my mom and me going to Ah Leong's shop buying 'biscuits' (crackers) from metal tins of snacks that filled half the shop; my grandma who had some cash kept in biscuit tins; those simpler days.

Sorry. I digressed. Through Ah Hock, we get a glimpse of the lives of migrants who flee to Malaysia hoping for greener pastures only to realize it's not that different here. The plague of poverty, sickness, discrimination, racism stuck to them like glue, just like the many other low-income non Bumiputras. Everyone fighting for their own piece of pie, which isn't very big. It's a dog eat dog world. Only the tough will survive.

Reading this book made me question morality and how far one would go to be the last one standing - what made Ah Hock strike that innocent man? He was a man of morals, always trying to do the right thing, and yet, he's in prison for killing. Why not Keong who never thought twice about breaking the law? Looks like Karma got wrong guy.

It also made me take a deeper look at the workers I see at construction sites and their dilapidated homes by the side of the roads, and people at the bottom of the social ladder, whose lives are invisible to the society, and how much of my own life I take for granted.

This book appealed to my introspective side. I love it!

What a fantastic book written by yet another powerhouse storyteller.

Thank you Netgalley and FSG Books for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Ah Hock, a Malaysian man who murdered another, tells his story to a writer of a true crime book in this well crafted and intriguing novel. Born in a fishing village and raised in the 1980s when so much changed not only in Malaysia but also in the global economy, it's the story of a man, his family, and the other villagers and how they coped- or didn't cope- with the dislocations brought on by all sorts of economic forces. Ah Hock's association with Keong spelled nothing but trouble. Tash Aw has hit a sweet spot with a character from a cultural and time and place that hasn't had much attention. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction and world literature.

Tash Aw summarizes the Asian culture and drivers once again with We, the Survivors. A captivating read.

I requested this book because it seemed interesting:

"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 ... a portrait of an outsider like no other, an anti-nostalgic view of human life and the ravages of hope. "

And, I had read and liked Tash Aw's work.
BUT not this.

This book did nothing for me. I was never engaged and felt the book was flat, dry, and largely uninteresting. That being said it was well written and occasionally I found an evocative description, ["swim walking"] but mostly I plodded through not caring.

In the last few pages a description of what I would have liked to have seen throughout-- Ah Hock noting what differences in the landscape meant. I wish there had been more of this.

Overall, a dark, depressing read. Scraping by. Immigrants. Poverty, hardships, ethnicity.

Note:: others have praised.

2.5 but cannot round up as I don't see as "good" and would not recommend.

The best-selling author of “Five Star Billionaire”, Tash Aw, is back with yet another taut and gripping book. While the earlier book compellingly dwelled upon the get-rich-quick ploys of newcomers flocking to Shanghai, “We, The Survivors” – an equally engaging work – is predominantly set in Tash Aw’s motherland, Malaysia. Bristling with shades of Albert Camus’ “The Outsider”, Tash Aw’s protagonist - first person narrator who also happens to be an ‘accidental murderer’ - keeps the readers glued to the pages as he takes them on what can only be described as a cathartic ride.

Ah Hock narrates his unfortunate story of misplaced confidence, misdirected hopes and mismanaged priorities to Su-Min a sociology post graduate. A murder that he inadvertently commits – the why and how of the murder would detract from the very essence of the review, not to mention the disservice such a revelation would cause to the potential reader – results in not only a short prison sentence, but also in the wider context of things, the very uprooting of what until now had been a comfortable life.

The novel courses through the multicultural society of Malaysia that has as its underpinnings the not so seamless yet not so uneasy co-existence of three distinct races, Malays, Chinese and Indian. The glue that binds the troika is more of symbiosis than sentiment. Ah Hock and his disturbingly eccentric friend Keong move through the lower strata of society, trudging through days desperate for hope and a change of fortune. In this visceral journey, Hock and Keong encounter social complexities, simmering interpersonal tensions and a deep seated xenophobia. Tash Aw bestows an electric local flavour to the book. Whether it be the mouthing of the choicest of expletives in the Cantonese dialect by Keong, or the offer of Chee Cheong Fun (a thin crépe roll made from a wide strip of rice noodles, filled with shrimp, beef, vegetables, or other ingredients) by Ah Hock to Su-Min, the Malaysian influence on the novel rears its bold head throughout the book.

The book also highlights in stark albeit uncomfortable detail the pervasive nature of social inequality prevalent in Malaysia. While at one spectrum of the civilization continuum lies the hustle and bustle of an effervescent, vibrant and dynamic Kuala Lumpur, the city of magnificent sky scrapers, coiffured socialites and affluent mansions, at the other and extreme end of the scale, lies villages in the hinterland that are emblematic of squalor, starvation and endemic disease. Tash Aw leaves us with a scarring example of the plight of the people populating the bottom of the pyramid in the form of a matter-of-fact, yet profound comment made by Ah Hock in response to a question posed by Su-Min. Upon being asked as to why the migrants continue to work in spite of a dangerously failing health, Ah Hock responds, “You get sick, you get the sack.” This arresting conflict of contradictions forms the centerpiece of Ah Hock’s existence as he swings between desperation and delight.

In this fascinating duel between morality and materiality, it is pointless to attempt an unraveling of the winner. It is easier counting scars and tracking eventualities than identifying the victor from the vanquished. It is this very quandary that makes Ah Hock’s experiences memorable as well as macabre.

3.5 rounded up

We, the Suvivors tells the story of Ah Hock, an uneducated man from a Malaysian fishing village. We know right off the bat that Ah Hock has murdered a man, what we don't know is why. Tash Aw tells the story of an ordinary working class man from rural Malaysia right through from childhood to adulthood in a way which is original, empathic and humanising, though never trite.

This was an interesting take on the motivations and frustrations of an ordinary man living in a rapidly changing society. The Malaysia Ah Hock inhabits is not the one we know from the media - apart from a fleeting period living in KL his life is centred around small towns and the countryside where he grew up and eventually ends up managing a fish farm.

The narrative is structured through a series of flashbacks beginning in Ah Hock's childhood as well as a present day thread where Su-Min, a sociology postgrad who has just returned from studying in the US, interviews Ah Hock about his life and the build-up to the murder.

While Ah Hock's life itself isn't jam-packed full of dramatic twists and turns it still makes for a compelling read - a key part of this is what we learn about how his on/off friendship with Keong (a guy who is something of a small time criminal - think drug dealing and recruiting refugees for labour) impacts upon his life. I found the section focusing on his relationship with his wife less convincing, however the insertion of refugees into the narrative was done well.