The Garden of Evening Mists

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The Garden of Evening Mists

By: Tan Twan Eng

Narrated by: Joanna Gently

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£5.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST. Cancel monthly.

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A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK
AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE MAN ASIAN LITERARY PRIZE AND THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE

Teoh Yun Ling was seventeen years old when she first heard about Aritomo and the garden. But a war would come to Malaya, and a decade pass before she would travel to see him. A man of extraordinary skill and reputation, Aritomo was once the gardener for the Emperor of Japan, and now Yun Ling needs him. She needs him to help her build a memorial to her beloved sister, killed at the hands of the Japanese. She wants to learn everything Aritomo can teach her, and do her sister proud, but to do so she must also begin a journey into her own past, a past inextricably linked with the secrets of her troubled country.

A story of art, war, love and memory, The Garden of Evening Mists captures a dark moment in history with richness, power and incredible beauty.

Tan Twan EngJoanna GentlyCanongate Books

Genre Fiction

Historical Fiction

Literary Fiction

War

Imperial Japan

Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction War Imperial Japan

Critic reviews

Complex and powerful . . . sophisticated and satisfying

It is impossible to resist the opening sentence of this sumptuously produced novel . . . It showcases Tan Twan Eng as a master of cultural complexities

Elegant and atmospheric

An elegant and haunting novel of war, art and memory . . . its beauty never comes to rest

Tantalisingly evocative . . . Suffused with a satisfying richness of colour and character, it still abounds in hidden passageways and occult corners. Mysteries and secrets persist. Tan dwells often on the borderline states, the in between areas, of Japanese art: the archer's hiatus before the arrow speeds from the bow; the patch of skin that a master of the horimono tattoo will leave bare; or the "beautiful and sorrowful" moment "just as the last leaf is about to drop" . . . An elegant and haunting novel of war, art and memory

A beautiful, dark and wistful exploration of loss and remembrance, that will stay with you long after reading

War, art and memory join in a subtle story, notable for its ravishing prose, glorious sense of place, and mature alertness to the deceptive vistas of history (Boyd Tonkin)

With ravishing sensuousness, it conjures up the lush landscapes and tea estates of Malaya during the 1950s Emergency, as reflections on Japanese aesthetic refinements in gardening and art intersect with recollections of Japanese wartime atrocities in a haunting novel about memory (Peter Kemp)

This beautifully written book is full of arresting images . . . Achieved with the seemingly effortless poise of a remarkable fictional artistry, Tan Twan Eng's winning novel will be prized by all those who cannot resist the mastery of language

This book is to be kept and re-read and revered for its elegant, lyrical prose

Most relevant

shame this author has not been able to recreate the depth of emotions of his first book. enjoyable still