Name: The Garden of Evening Mists
Rating: 4.25 (28 reviews)
ISBN: 9781905802494

Twan Eng Tan

It's Malaya, 1949. After studying law at Cambrige and time spent helping to prosecute Japanese war criminals, Yun Ling Teoh, seeks solace among the jungle fringed plantations of Northern Malaya where she grew up as a child. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo.

The Garden of Evening Mists

Shameera Nair Lin

I think I might be in love with this book.

Tan Twan Eng

The International BestsellerWinner of the Man Asian Literary Prize 2012Winner of the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction 2013Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012Shortlisted for the 2014 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award'With ravishing sensuousness, it conjures up the lush landscapes and tea estates of Malaya during the 1950s Emergency . . . A haunting novel about memory' Sunday Times Books of the YearIn the highlands of Malaya, a woman sets out to build a memorial to her sister, killed at the hands of the Japanese during the brutal Occupation of their country. Yun Ling's quest leads her to The Garden of Evening Mists, and to Aritomo, a man of extraordinary skill and reputation, once the gardener of the Emperor of Japan. When she accepts his offer to become his apprentice, she begins a journey into her past, inextricably linked with the secrets of her troubled country's history.

Kwan Ann Tan

Three things I thought about while reading this: 

1. I know the whole novel is about closure and letting go of the past, but seriously, fuck imperial Japan and all the shit they did as colonisers. 

2. Tan Twan Eng's descriptions are magic. I've only been to Cameron Highlands once in my life but damn it was like I was there again. 

3. Ultimately, there's still so much work to be done to decolonise the Malaysian mindset if we are ever to move forward from our own histories. Kind of a tall order since we've literally been colonised since 1511 and have less than a hundred years of independence. And we're digging ourselves into even bigger holes rather than filling them in by not confronting this history and the cough political scene.

Jeni Enjaian

Words fail me when it comes to reviewing this book but I will try.
I entered this book knowing little, especially not that this book would become one of the best books that I have ever read. I also love the fact that I found it at a library used book sale (it was one of 19 books that I got for $10)
Eng creates a beautiful, haunting narrative. Teoh Yun Ling, the protagonist, narrates the story. At the start, she is a judge, retiring from her place on the bench so that she can face a degenerative neurological disease, aphasia, that will eventually steal her ability to remember how to read, write, and understand language. She travels back to a place where she spent many healing years during the 1950s to write her memoir and explore what that place, and the people she met and loved there, meant to her.
Eng weaves this complex narrative that wanders through Yun Ling's memories and does not drop a stitch. I usually do not like books that shift time periods without warning; Eng does it so well that overt headings or chapter titles would have detracted.
This book explores so much history that I had only vague awareness of and some that I did not know at all. Through this memory journey of Yun Ling, Eng unfolds so much trauma that many need to deal with and heal from.
I could talk about this book for hours and still come woefully short of adequately reviewing this book. 
Read it.

Nico J

I profess - I don't know a thing about Malaya, Malaysia, the area around here during WWII, or much about the history of this part of the world, but I'm trying. If historical books are the only way to paddle in and explore, so be it. There's something poignant, and simultaneously close like a whisper, distant as a mountain, and yet intimate about the way it is written and how we interact with the slightly unreliable narrator of her terrifying past. The characters are rich, and established promptly - Magnus being a personal favorite of mine. There were some unfamiliar words that were puzzling, but I made the most of the notes and highlights options in the Kindle ebook this time and plan to spend some quality time placing the puzzle pieces into context. Sometimes there was enough context to decipher it, though other times there wasn't. I have the feeling some of the words point to specifics about this point in time historically that my knowledge of is completely lacking.

The narrator herself is an onion - even from her point of view, there are so many layers to her difficult life and situation and the relationships she eventually develops. Her anger is completely understandable, even if I couldn't begin to relate to what she has gone through. You get the impression, as it goes on, that she did more than just live through the camp but instead had to fight to survive and do things that she feels guilty about. Her distance from not only her father, but from everyone makes sense when you remember how she felt she betrayed those she was closest to (her sister). Magnus, again, emerges as my favorite point of view and voice of reason by discussing how she was holding on to her anger so tightly and it was to her detriment. It's something to be better at in practice myself, though. Frankly, the main character's simmering frustrating and anger as something that cannot abide was relatable, too. The entire novel is quite a different perspective on WWII from a less-heard, though no-less-interesting player in game. The story languishes at times, but it also lingers carefully and maybe reflects a different way of living, a different perspective of time and of the world, and that aspect of it doesn't come through with the clarity the author intends.

Her relationship with Aritomo is the most frustrating part of this for me. I'm not sure if she wants to, in a strange way, dominate him and gain back a semblance of control of her issues in the camp, or if part of her truly does come to see them as people, just on a different side of the war. Considering her bubbling anger, the latter seems less likely. The blithe way (or perhaps not) in which their paths cross could have been explored more instead of left up to trail off at the end of the book, but there is something satisfying in that it won't, and cannot, be explained. Their complicated relationship is fascinating but at points, odd and repulsive. I don't consider this, necessarily, a negative aspect of the writing, because perhaps that's what the author ultimately wanted. It's difficult to say, but I'm sticking to the notion that it's meant to be awkward and complicated and viewed with disdain, as there are plenty of negative expressions of their relationship mentioned by other characters.


Personal anecdote: Poor reviews based on the quality of the audiobook strike me as tacky and detract from discussion of the actual book. Something I noticed skimming through reviews, anyway.

Seeking solace in the Malaysian plantations of her childhood after grueling World War II experiences, criminal prosecutor Yun Ling Teoh discovers a Japanese garden and its enigmatic tender, an exiled Japanese royal gardener who reluctantly accepts her as an apprentice. By the author of The Gift of Rain. Original.

A Novel

Isabel 

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZEWINNER OF THE MAN ASIAN LITERARY PRIZEWINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZETeoh Yun Ling was seventeen years old when she first heard about Aritomo and the garden. But a war would come to Malaya, and a decade pass before she would travel to see him. A man of extraordinary skill and reputation, Aritomo was once the gardener for the Emperor of Japan, and now Yun Ling needs him. She needs him to help her build a memorial to her beloved sister, killed at the hands of the Japanese. She wants to learn everything Aritomo can teach her, and do her sister proud, but to do so she must also begin a journey into her own past, a past inextricably linked with the secrets of her troubled country. A story of art, war, love and memory, The Garden of Evening Mists captures a dark moment in history with richness, power and incredible beauty.

The Garden of Evening Mists

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