The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng | Book Addict

“This is Tan Twang Eng’s second novel and his first, The Gift of Rain (2007) enchanted me with its poetic language and beautiful imagery. The Garden of Evening Mists gave me the same pleasure and obviously others, as it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize this year.

The main character is an elderly woman called Yun Ling Teoh, who returns to the tea plantations of the Cameron Highlands to a house and garden that she has inherited. Yun Ling Teo has aphasia, a neurological condition which is causing her memory to fade, and she writes her memories down in order to not forget her past.

And so the readers learn of her as a younger woman who comes to the Cameron Highlands to visit ‘Yugiri’, the only Japanese garden in Malaysia. Both Yun Ling Teoh and her sisters were held under appalling conditions in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, during which time her sister died. Yun Ling Teoh went to Yugiri to honour her sister’s wish to create a Japanese garden. There she meets the reclusive Arimoto, former gardener to the Emperor of Japan, and the creator of Yugiri.”

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