The Malaysian writer, Tan Twan Eng, who is a resident of Cape Town, was announced the winner of the renowned Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction, at a ceremony in Melrose, Scotland on 14 June. He personally received the prize from the Duke of Buccleuch, founder of prize, at the Borders Book Festival.
His winning novel, The Garden of Evening Mists, has already received several other accolades. Since its publication in 2012, ithas received international praise for the rich layering of historical periods and evocative language. Apart from being shortlist for the Man Booker Prize in 2012, it was awarded the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize. The Garden of Evening Mists is Tan’s second novel. His first novel, The Gift of Rain was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007.
This is the first time that the Walter Scott Prize, of £25,000, was awarded to a writer from outside the United Kingdom. Since last year, writers from outside the Commonwealth have been legible to enter the competition. Other writers nominated for this year’s fourth Walter Scott Prize were Pat Barker, Thomas Keneally, Anthony Quinn, Rose Tremain and Hilary Mantel, the latter being the winner of the 2012 Man Booker Prize and the 2010 winner of the Walter Scott Prize.
According to the BBC, the judges of the prize commented that, "All the authors on this year's shortlist have written wonderful books, illuminating times and breathing life into personalities in a way that is enlightening and which brings lasting pleasure to the reader. However, The Garden of Evening Mists is the book that left the deepest imprint on us.”
“The poignancy of both remembering and forgetting is what this book is all about. One of the strengths of the Walter Scott Prize is that we can be broad in our reach. Set in the jungle-clad highlands of Malaya, this year's winner leads us into the troubled aftermath of World War Two. It is pungent and atmospheric; a rich, enigmatic, layered novel in which landscapes part and merge, and part again."
Tan, who has been residing in Cape Town for the past 10 years, gave up a career in Law to become a fulltime writer. Born in Penang in 1972, he practised as an intellectual property lawyer in Kuala Lampur. While taking a mid-career break and studying for a Masters at UCT, he finished his debut novel, which was soon receiving great praise in literary circles and translated into Italian, Spanish, Greek, Romanian, Czech, Serbian and French. Tan is a regular speaker at literary festivals around the world.