“The unexpected relationship between a war-scarred woman and an exiled gardener leads to a journey through remorse to a kind of peace. The Garden of Evening Mists also offers action-packed, end-of-empire storytelling.”ĭominique Browning, The New York Times Book Review“ strong quiet novel eloquent mystery.” But for all its mission to ‘capture stillness on paper’. linguistic refinement and searching intelligence. Tan writes with breath-catching poise and grace. This duality invests the novel with a climate of doubt a mood – as with Aritomo’s creation – of “tension and possibility”. It unmasks sophisticated artistry as a partner of pain and lies. His fictional garden cultivates formal harmony –but also undermines it. “The Garden of Evening Mists offers action-packed, end-of-empire storytelling in the vein of Tan’s compatriot Tash Aw. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. Who is Aritomo and how did he come to leave Japan? Why is it that Yun Ling's friend and host Magnus Praetorius, seems to almost immune from the depredations of the Communists? What is the legend of 'Yamashita's Gold' and does it have any basis in fact? And is the real story of how Yun Ling managed to survive the war perhaps the darkest secret of all? But the Garden of Evening Mists is also a place of mystery. As the months pass, Yun Ling finds herself intimately drawn to her sensei and his art while, outside the garden, the threat of murder and kidnapping from the guerrillas of the jungle hinterland increases with each passing day. Then she can design a garden for herself. Aritomo refuses, but agrees to accept Yun Ling as his apprentice 'until the monsoon comes'. Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in Kuala Lumpur, in memory of her sister who died in the camp. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the Emperor of Japan. After studying law at Cambrige and time spent helping to prosecute Japanese war criminals, Yun Ling Teoh, herself the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle fringed plantations of Northern Malaya where she grew up as a child. SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2012.

The garden of evening mists book review