The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng

"Standing there... I forgot where I was, what I had gone through, what I had lost."

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I am ashamed to say that this is a book that I would have walked past on the shelves and never have picked up. It is so far outside my reading comfort zone that I wouldn't have even considered it, but thankfully this was gifted to me by my grandmother. While it took a while to get going, when it hit its stride this book is eye-opening and gripping.

Yun Ling is the only survivor of her Japanese prisoner of war camp. She cannot forget her past and she can't forgive the people involved, but in honour of her sister she sets out to build a memorial garden. This leads her to The Garden of Evening Mists and master gardener Nakamura Aritomo in the highlands of Malaya. When she accepts his offer of apprenticeship she begins to understand her past, her country's turbulent history and ultimately herself. Thirty years later she returns to the garden, and in writing her memoir is forced to reflect on her experiences and the hatred she has carried with her throughout her life.

From the outset this book has a tangible melancholy air, a pervasive sadness that it is impossible not to get caught up in. Tan captures Yun Ling's visceral guilt and hatred from her past, creating a character who is flawed but captivating. Her every waking moment is consumed by anger and fear, she is tough and antagonistic, but this is wonderfully contrasted by the soft and almost ethereal descriptions of the nature and gardens that the story is set in. Nakamura Aritomo on the other hand is an enigma of a character, he is entrancing because of his detached and cryptic nature.

Tan's use of language provides beautiful imagery of the Malayan countryside and of Yugiri (The Garden of Evening Mists) that makes you feel like you are walking through them yourself, breathing in the crisp mountain air and hearing the wind whip through the trees. I have always liked Japanese gardens, they feel calming and restorative to me, but this book has given me a new found understanding and appreciation of the strict principles and structures in place in Japanese gardening that work together to create such mesmerising vistas.

It is important to note that this is not an easy read. It handles a dark and disturbing period in Malayan history and is at times uncomfortable and harrowing to read, but it was enlightening about a part of history I had no knowledge of.

At its heart I think this is a book about memory, self reflection and love. It is beautifully written and utterly moving.

H x