The Garden of Evening Mists – Tan Twan Eng

The Garden of Evening Mists – Tan Twan Eng

A novel with a truly complex chronology – it spans three time periods – The Garden of Evening Mists is written in Tan’s characteristic lyrical prose and uses beauty and its treacherous depths as the central theme. The novel is narrated by Teoh Yun Ling in the 1980s just before aphasia claims her completely. It recounts her life from 1949 when she was a young lawyer with very strong anti-Japanese sentiments, having been a ‘Guest of the Emperor’ in a jungle prison where she loses her beloved sister. Yun Ling flees to her home in the highlands and there slowly befriends and later becomes the lover of Aritomo, the imperial gardner exiled from his native Japan. She asks him to create a garden in memory of her sister, and while he refuses, he offers to teach her the art of Japanese gardening.

Nothing is as it seems however, as one realises that the initially seemingly righteous Yun Ling and the wise Aritomo are both recovering from and seeking redemption for reasons not immediately apparent. Some may find the prose heavy-handed, perhaps not crisp enough. But crispness would destroy the ‘feel’ of this novel that has to wend its path through a lush but twisted wordscape to bring us to its conclusion.

Sūn Mèng Qí