The Garden of Evening Mists

By: Tan Twan Eng

Narrated by: Anna Bentinck

Malaya, 1951. Yun Ling Teoh, the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle-fringed tea plantations of Cameron Highlands. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the emperor of Japan.

Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in memory of her sister, who died in the camp. Aritomo refuses but agrees to accept Yun Ling as his apprentice "until the monsoon comes". Then she can design a garden for herself.

As the months pass, Yun Ling finds herself intimately drawn to the gardener and his art, while all around them a communist guerilla war rages. But the Garden of Evening Mists remains a place of mystery. Who is Aritomo and how did he come to leave Japan? And is the real story of how Yun Ling managed to survive the war perhaps the darkest secret of all?

©2012 Tan Twan Eng (P)2012 W.F. Howes

This Book is Absolute Perfection

With most books, the author either has you root for the main character (despite their flaws), or has you love the main character because they're so darn cool. It takes incredible skill and enormous courage for an author to force the reader to squirm from discomfort because we may not actually LIKE the main character and we may not find much endearing about her at all. We may not actually be able to forgive some actions of the main character but it doesn't mean we're not with her throughout the story, keeping her at a distance but utterly engrossed.

That kind of writing happens once in a blue moon but Tan Twan Eng has done it. This novel is pure poetry. It forces the reader to question their own morality, to ask themselves "Do I REALLY know what I would do in such a situation? Do I have the right to judge others, having never been in those circumstances?"

Anna Bentinck does a brilliant job. Her accents are fantastic (though admittedly not always accurate) and she portrays the main character with the perfect amount of "chilliness".

Early on in the book, I immediately judged the Professor as some bit player, an insignificant nobody. However, as the book unfolds, the Professor, as a human being, becomes heartbreakingly unforgettable.

This is my favorite book of all time. I'm desperate for Audible to have his other book, Gift of Rain, narrated.

A Work of Art

Any additional comments?

Without question the most beautifully written and narrated book I've had the pleasure to listen to.

Beautiful story.

Well written. Very descriptive. At times the flag back. Are hard to place in the time line. Narrator could have tried different accents or just read it without an accent. I will read this book again to try and get more details in the correct timeline.

Powerful, engaging, spiritual

Loved it. Engaging , loved the three dimensional characters, subtle and powerful. I’ll not soon forget it.

nice story despite terrible narration

Where does The Garden of Evening Mists rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

this narrator took on many characters from many parts of the world- and should have simple read it in her normal voice. her "accents" are terrible.
the story is lovely.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

stunning visuals