Set in the garden of Yugiri in Malaya (as it was then) and the tea estate next door, Majuba, the story shifts too and frow across time as the narrator, Teoh Yun Ling, a straits Chinese woman tells her story and that of the once Gardener of the Emperor Hirohito, Nakamura Aritomo (Malay surnames are always first, so the novelist’s surname is Tan). Yun Ling returns to the garden of Yugiri – Evening Mists - 40 years after her previous visit, the garden was left to her by its owner Aritomo who disappeared 40 years earlier. Yun Ling and her sister were once prisoners of the Japanese in Malaya, during the course of the novel she reflects on her life, the relationships she has with friends on the estate next door, and her apprenticeship to the Japanese gardener.

Layer upon layer. The breadth and depth of this novel and the tales it tells are rich. The characters deeply drawn, the twists and turns subtle and fascinating.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ( )

Gardens

Judge Teoh Yun Ling has retired due to illness. She returns to her mountain home, where her memories of the past are rekindled. Yun Ling was a survivor of a Japanese concentration camp. After the war, she is determined to honour her dead sister by building a Japanese garden. Ironically, the only man who can help her with this is Aritomo, a Japanese gardener who was a loyal servant of the emporer in whose name Yun Ling and her family were brutalised.

Tan does a great job of exploring Yun Ling's deep and conflicted emotions about the Japanese, family, and the circumstances of her survival. His writing is beautiful; his evocation of Aritomo's garden amid the Malaysian hill country it is nestled in make you feel as if you are actually there.

For me, this is the book that should have won the Booker. It is a far more original concept than Hilary Mantel's, and memorably written.

( )

Tras su empeño en ayudar a enjuiciar a los criminales de guerra japoneses, Teoh Yun Ling, superviviente de un brutal campo de prisioneros japonés, busca consuelo a sus cicatrices entre las plantaciones de Cameron Highlands, la sierra central de Malasia, donde ella pasó su infancia. Desde antes de la guerra, ya sabía que allí vivía el enigmático Nakamura Aritomo, que había sido jardinero del emperador de Japón. A pesar de su resentimiento con los japoneses, Yun Ling busca involucrar a Aritomo para crear un jardín en memoria de su hermana, Yung Hong, que murió en el campo de concentración. Éste se niega, pero acepta tomar a Yun Ling como aprendiz hasta que llegue el monzón. Luego, ella podría diseñar su proyectado jardín. Mientras trabaja en Yugiri, el jardín de las brumas diseñado por Aritomo, más allá de las colinas hay otra guerra: las guerrillas comunistas actúan con ferocidad y los nacionalistas malayos luchan por la independencia ante el poder colonial británico. Al paso de los meses, mientras los riesgos en la zona aumentan día a día, Yun Ling se sorprende íntimamente atraída por su sensei y todas sus artes. Además, Yugiri se revela como un lugar misterioso que parece apartarlos de todo. ¿Por qué su anfitrión sudafricano, Magnus Pretorius, parece casi inmune a las incursiones de los comunistas? ¿Quién es Aritomo y cómo llegó hasta allí? ¿Cuál es la leyenda del dorado Yamashita, por qué ha de creerla? ¿Será la historia de cómo Yun Ling logró sobrevivir a la guerra tal vez el secreto más oscuro de todos? ¿Tendrá razón Aritomo, será la memoria como el arte de la jardinería, donde cada paso es una forma de engaño?

Beautifully written novel set in Malaysia. In the 1980s, Judge Teoh Yun Ling is retiring from her position on the Malaysian Supreme Court. She has been diagnosed with aphasia, a neurological condition which will impair her ability to read, write, and understand language. She sits down to write about her life before she can no longer remember.

“Once I lose all ability to communicate with the world outside myself, nothing will be left but what I remember. My memories will be like a sandbar, cut off from the shore by the incoming tide. In time they will become submerged, inaccessible to me. The prospect terrified me. For what is a person without memories? A ghost, trapped between worlds, without an identity, with no future, no past.”

She experienced many traumas in an internment camp during the Japanese Occupation of Malaysia in WWII and held deep-seated resentment against the Japanese. In the 1950s, she became an apprentice to a Japanese gardener, Nakamura Aritomo, formerly employed by Emperor Hirohito. He moved from Japan to Malaysia and designed Yugiri, the Garden of Evening Mists.

“The sounds of the world outside faded away, absorbed into the leaves. I stood there, not moving. For a moment I felt that nothing had changed since I was last here, almost thirty-five years before – the scent of pine resin sticking to the air, the bamboo creaking and knocking in the breeze, the broken mosaic of sunlight scattered over the ground.”

It provides a glimpse into the history of Malaysia, covering portions of both WWII and the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960), a time of insurrection that preceded independence. I have not read many books set in Malaysia am not that familiar with its culture and history, so I found these details fascinating. It also includes elements of Japanese culture, such as the art of designing Japanese gardens, the art of horimono (an elaborate tattooing process), and a mindful approach to archery.

The book has an intriguing plot and realistic characters. It contains a balanced mix of harshness and gentleness; violence and serenity; remembering and forgetting. It is intricate and nuanced. Ultimately it is about overcoming past discord and trauma to achieve reconciliation and healing. I took my time reading it, savoring the written word and the ambiance it evoked.
( )