THE world knows him as the best-selling, award-winning author of The Gift of Rain and the Garden of Evening Mists. Tan Twan Eng's knack for bringing historical situations to life has seen him garner both the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction in recent times. What is rather less known is his deep interest in the brooding keyboard bands of the 1980s. Tan took time out of his globe-trotting to answer some email questions about his little-known passion for bands like Depeche Mode and New Order.