Tan Twan Eng was announced yesterday (14 March) as the winner of the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize, becoming the first Malaysian author to win Asia’s most prestigious literary prize.

The author won with his novel The Garden of Evening Mists, which is only the second time the Man Asian Literary Prize has been won by a novel originally written in English. All previous winners, except Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco (2008), won as English translations. The novel, set during the aftermath of the Japanese occupation of Malaya, won the USD 30,000 award, from a shortlist of five books spanning the whole Asian continent.

The five shortlisted novels, selected from a longlist of 15, are:
- Between Clay and Dust - Musharraf Ali Farooqi (Pakistan)
- The Briefcase – Hiromi Kawakami (Japan)
- Silent House - Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)
- The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng (Malaysia)
- Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil (India)