The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng
I promised I'd review this book so I shall. Incidentally, I intend to review many, many more books than I actually do, but reviews are pretty hard to write (books are hard too.)
So, The Garden of Evening Mists. This book was shortlisted for the Booker, and has won a couple of other prizes. It concerns Yun Ling Teoh, a woman who was held by the Japanese in a work camp during the war. Her sister dies in the camp, and Ling Teoh promises her that she'll build a Japanese garden in her memory.
After the war she travels to the Malaysian tea-growing highlands, to ask Aritomo, once gardener to the Emperor now in exile since before the war, to design a garden for her sister. Aritomo refuses, but instead offers to take Ling Teoh on as an apprentice 'until the monsoon' so she can learn to design her sister's garden herself. It's what happens next that takes up the bulk of the story, told via flashback as Ling Teoh is now an old woman.
For a story that deals with such grim parts of history, this is a pleasure to read. The descriptions are gorgeous, and the setting is beautiful. Themes of war, guilt, memory and the search for peace run strong. Ling Teoh tells the story in her own words, and the horrors of war are not lingered on; it's what happens afterwards that is important.
I really liked this book, and, highest of high praise, I could see myself reading it again someday.
So, The Garden of Evening Mists. This book was shortlisted for the Booker, and has won a couple of other prizes. It concerns Yun Ling Teoh, a woman who was held by the Japanese in a work camp during the war. Her sister dies in the camp, and Ling Teoh promises her that she'll build a Japanese garden in her memory.
After the war she travels to the Malaysian tea-growing highlands, to ask Aritomo, once gardener to the Emperor now in exile since before the war, to design a garden for her sister. Aritomo refuses, but instead offers to take Ling Teoh on as an apprentice 'until the monsoon' so she can learn to design her sister's garden herself. It's what happens next that takes up the bulk of the story, told via flashback as Ling Teoh is now an old woman.
For a story that deals with such grim parts of history, this is a pleasure to read. The descriptions are gorgeous, and the setting is beautiful. Themes of war, guilt, memory and the search for peace run strong. Ling Teoh tells the story in her own words, and the horrors of war are not lingered on; it's what happens afterwards that is important.
I really liked this book, and, highest of high praise, I could see myself reading it again someday.