His first novel,
The Gift of Rain, published in 2007, was long-listed for the
Man Booker Prize. It is set in
Penang 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, French, Russian and Hungarian. His second novel,
The Garden of Evening Mists, was published in 2012. It was shortlisted for the
2012 Man Booker Prize and won the
Man Asian Literary Prize, and the
Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The novel was
adapted into a film starring
Hiroshi Abe,
Lee Sin-je,
John Hannah,
David Oakes and
Sylvia Chang, which was released in 2020. Tan has spoken at literary festivals, including the
Singapore Writers Festival, the
Ubud Writers Festival in
Bali, the
Asia Man Booker Festival in Hong Kong, the
Shanghai International Literary Festival, the
Perth Writers Festival, the
Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne, Australia, the
Franschhoek Literary Festival in South Africa, the Borders Book Festival in Melrose, Scotland, the George Town Literary Festival in Penang, the Head Read Literary Festival in Tallinn, and many more. He is one of the judges of the
International Booker Prize 2023, the first Malaysian author to be appointed to that role. His 2023 novel,
The House of Doors, was longlisted for the
Booker Prize and shortlisted for the 2024
Walter Scott Prize. ==Works==