Why this book:  While I was reading All the Beauty in the World, this book kept popping up on my google and Amazon feeds – if you liked All the Beaurty, you’d probably like this.  I looked it up, the story sounded intriguing so I got it on Audible  and listened to it. 

Summary in 3 Sentenes:  The story is told in the first person from the perspective of a Malaysian woman of Chinese descent whose story we hear from her perspective as an old woman looking back on her life, sharing her story as a young woman working for a renowned Japanese gardner in the mountains of Malaysia, and  as a prisoner in a Japanese slave labor camp during WWII. The story bounces around in the timeline, but the meat of it was when she worked as an apprentice to the Japanese Emperor’s former gardner, helping him buid his masterpiece garden in the mountains of Southern Malayia

My Impressions: Loved this book. It moves slowly, but in a deliberate manner.  At first the slow pace was a bit off-putting and I wasn’t sure what was happening, but patience won out and I”m so glad it did.  Like a great, unhurried meal, it offered tidbit apetizers to let you warm up to the main course,  and by the time it started picking up, I was entranced and very engaged.   It never really got to be a so-called “page-turner,” but the story was powerful and told in a way that will appeal to most sensitive intelligent readers who are not looking for a “fast food” novel.  When I finished the book I wanted to spend more time with the woman whose story I’d been listening to for weeks. It wss nominated for and received many awards.

Given that I listened to it, it’s worth commenting that the reader did an awesome job of creating different voices for not only the main character in different stages of her life, but also for the multitude of men and women of different nationalities who came into her life. 

I was surprised to learn that the author is male – the voice of the female protagonist Yun Ling was very convincing. 

This story introduces us to Malaysia in the period from before  WWII until the 1980s.  We learn something about Malaysia as a British colony, the anglophone Chinese subculture of British Malaysia, then how the Brits abandoned Malaysia to the Japanese and the brutality the Japanese Army imposed on Malaysia (and the rest of it’s conquests,) to include their treatment of PoWs in slave labor camps.  And then the aftermath of the War – the brutal communist insurgency in Malaysia, how the British sought to suppress it, how the British and the Malaysian Chinese  were distrusted by the native Malaysians as they worked  together for Malaysian independence from Britain.  We also learn of  the existence of Indigenous Malaysians who lived separately and were somewhat disenfranchised by the Brits and elites of Malaysian society.  We also got various different views and perspectives of different Japanese involved in the war. 

And of course we learn a lot about different philosophies and art of Japanese gardening, as Aritomoa explains its nuances to Yun Ling.  Also surprisingly we learn about the Horimomo – the esoteric art of Japanees artful tatooing,  

All of that was background and setting for the protagonist’s story – how after the war and her traumatic experiences in a Japanese slave labor camp, she left a promising legal career in Kuala Lumpur to fulfill a promise to her sister who had died in the slave labor camps. Yun Ling and her sister had made elaborate plans to work together to build a Japanese Garden together after the war.  After leaving Kuala Lumpur, Yun Ling dedicated herself to fulfilling this dream she and her sister had had.  At her request, Yun Ling becomes an apprentice to Aritomo a master Japanese gardener who had formerly been  Emperor Hirohito’s gardener prior to the War. Aritomo had been let go and gone into exile in Malaysia, and was creating “Yugiri” -his own ideal garden in the Highlands of Southern Malaysia. Yun Ling initially has a difficult relationship to Aritomo, as she clearly suffers from PTSD based on her experiences in the Japanese slave labor camp.  Aritomo is patient when she erupts with animus left from that experience. Slowly she grows, matures,  and is less consumed by her anger.  

Much of the book centers around Yun Ling’s strained but evolving relationship to Aritomo as she learns more about the art of the Japanese garden, and about the quiet and mysterious Aritomo himself. Also included in the story are several other colorful charactrs – Magnus – a close friend of Aritomo’s and eventually of Yun Ling, and his nephew Frederick – both expats from South Africa. As the book progresses, we learn more about and get to know Yun Ling, Aritomo, Magnus and Frederick. There are indeed some surprises.  The more I got to know these characters, especially Yun Ling the protagonist, the more I became immersed in the story and loved what it was telling me.  I was sad to finish the book.

Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I loved it and will read more by this author.