The Garden of Evening Mists

„Memory must exist before forgetting can occur.“

Malaya, 1951. Yun Lin is the only survivor of a secret Japanese concentration camp. There, she lost her beloved sister and shared the tragic fate of thousands of prisoners. Yun Lin can do only one thing for her: make her dream come true and create a Japanese garden of unparalleled beauty. She hates the Japanese, who took away the people closest to her and nearly killed her as well. But she finds herself forced to turn to the Japanese man Aritomo, who was once an imperial gardener and is willing to teach her his craft. Yun Lin suspects that Aritomo has a secret, and realizes she is right when he suddenly disappears. But it will take her a lifetime to even come close to unraveling that secret...

A book that will immerse you in the world of pain and fragile beauty. And it will show you that nothing in life is stagnant, that everything changes, and people themselves change with their feelings and views.

Tan Tuan En was born in Penang, Malaysia. He studied law at the University of London and works as a lawyer in one of the largest law firms in Kuala Lumpur. He is the author of three novels, The Gift of Rain (2007), The Garden of Evening Mists (2011), which was adapted into a screen play, and The House with the Doors (2023), all three of which were nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize.