The Garden of Evening Mists

Author: Tan Twan Eng
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 1602861811
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
This “elegant and haunting novel of war, art and memory" (The Independent) award-winning novel from the acclaimed author of The Gift of Rain follows the only Malaysian survivor of a Japanese wartime camp as she begins working for an exiled former gardener of the Emporer. 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?

The Gift of Rain

Author: Tan Twan Eng
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 1602860599
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 351

Book Description
In the tradition of celebrated wartime storytellers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene, Tan Twan Eng's debut novel casts a powerful spell. The recipient of extraordinary acclaim from critics and the bookselling community, Tan Twan Eng's debut novel casts a powerful spell and has garnered comparisons to celebrated wartime storytellers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene. Set during the tumult of World War II, on the lush Malayan island of Penang, The Gift of Rain tells a riveting and poignant tale about a young man caught in the tangle of wartime loyalties and deceits. In 1939, sixteen-year-old Philip Hutton-the half-Chinese, half-English youngest child of the head of one of Penang's great trading families-feels alienated from both the Chinese and British communities. He at last discovers a sense of belonging in his unexpected friendship with Hayato Endo, a Japanese diplomat. Philip proudly shows his new friend around his adored island, and in return Endo teaches him about Japanese language and culture and trains him in the art and discipline of aikido. But such knowledge comes at a terrible price. When the Japanese savagely invade Malaya, Philip realizes that his mentor and sensei-to whom he owes absolute loyalty-is a Japanese spy. Young Philip has been an unwitting traitor, and must now work in secret to save as many lives as possible, even as his own family is brought to its knees.

Memory, Trauma, Asia

Author: Rahul K. Gairola
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351378996
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 143

Book Description
The contributors to this volume re-think established insights of memory and trauma theory and enrich those studies with diverse Asian texts, critically analyzing literary and cultural representations of Asia and its global diasporas. They broaden the scope of memory and trauma studies by examining how the East/ West binary delimits horizons of "trauma" by excluding Asian texts. Are memory and trauma always reliable registers of the past that translate across cultures and nations? Are supposedly pan-human experiences of suffering disproportionately coloured by eurocentric structures of region, reason, race, or religion? How are Asian texts and cultural producers yet viewed through biased lenses? How might recent approaches and perspectives generated by Asian literary and cultural texts hold purchase in the 21st century? Critically meditating on such questions, and whether existing concepts of memory and trauma accurately address the histories, present states, and futures of the non-Occidental world, this volume unites perspectives on both dominant and marginalized sites of the broader Asian continent. Contributors explore the complex intersections of literature, history, ethics, affect, and social justice across East, South, and Southeast Asia, and on Asian diasporas in Australia and the USA. They draw on yet diverge from "Orientalism" and "Area Studies" given today’s need for nuanced analytical methodologies in an era defined by the COVID-19 global pandemic. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars invested in memory and trauma studies, comparative Asian studies, diaspora and postcolonial studies, global studies, and social justice around contemporary identities and 20th and 21st century Asia.

Moon Magic

Author: Dion Fortune
Publisher: Weiser Books
ISBN: 1609250346
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Book Description
First published in 1938 and 1956, neither Sea Priestess nor Moon Magic have been out of print and are enduring favorites among readers of esoteric fiction. 'New packages will update these classic novels and introduce them to a new generation of readers.

Reading Group Choices

Author: Reading Group Choices
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780975974476
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Book Description

The Secret Scripture

Author: Sebastian Barry
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101202920
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Book Description
Now a major motion picture starring Rooney Mara An epic story of family, love, and unavoidable tragedy from the two-time Booker Prize finalist and author of Old God's Time Sebastian Barry's novels have been hugely admired by readers and critics, and in 2005 his novel A Long Long Way was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In The Secret Scripture, Barry revisits County Sligo, Ireland, the setting for his previous three books, to tell the unforgettable story of Roseanne McNulty. Once one of the most beguiling women in Sligo, she is now a resident of Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital and nearing her hundredth year. Set against an Ireland besieged by conflict, The Secret Scripture is an engrossing tale of one woman's life, and a poignant story of the cruelties of civil war and corrupted power. The Secret Scripture is now a film starring Rooney Mara, Eric Bana, and Vanessa Redgrave.

The Ghost Bride

Author: Yangsze Choo
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062227386
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 371

Book Description
Now a Netflix Mandarin original drama! From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Tiger, a Reese’s Book Club pick Yangsze Choo’s stunning debut, The Ghost Bride, is a startlingly original novel infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, and unexpected supernatural twists. Li Lan, the daughter of a respectable Chinese family in colonial Malaysia, hopes for a favorable marriage, but her father has lost his fortune, and she has few suitors. Instead, the wealthy Lim family urges her to become a “ghost bride” for their son, who has recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at what price? Night after night, Li Lan is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, where she must uncover the Lim family’s darkest secrets—and the truth about her own family. Reminiscent of Lisa See’s Peony in Love and Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, The Ghost Bride is a wondrous coming-of-age story and from a remarkable new voice in fiction.

The Garden House

Author: Linda Mahkovec
Publisher: Bublish, Inc.
ISBN: 1946229172
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 166

Book Description
Set in Seattle amid sensuous garden beauty and lush summer evenings, The Garden House is about finding meaning in the second half of life. Turning fifty has Miranda re-evaluating her life now that her two children have left the nest. In an attempt to rediscover the thrill and hope of her younger days, she decides to convert the garden house into an artist studio – only to find that her husband has already rented it to a somewhat mysterious young man. Though Miranda at first welcomes the shy tenant, she soon develops a sense of unease about him. Is he the nice man he appears to be? Or is he the reason behind her increasingly disturbing dreams? An uplifting – and sometimes suspenseful – story about a woman who pursues a life of love, creativity, and beauty. “I was completely swept away by this tale. I was engaged in the mystery, the confusion and all the secrecy….This book is one that will definitely test your intuition.” – NetGalley Review “Mahkovec’s prose is sharp and fluid, building tension in small domestic scenes….The premise is a fun one, and Miranda is a finely drawn character.” – Kirkus Reviews

Evening is the Whole Day

Author: Preeta Samarasan
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618874477
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 364

Book Description
Set in Malaysia, this spellbinding first novel by an acclaimed young writer introduces the prosperous Rajasekharan family as they slowly peel away their closely guarded secrets.

Narcopolis

Author: Jeet Thayil
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101561726
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Book Description
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize Written in poetic and affecting prose, Jeet Thayil's luminous debut novel charts the evolution of a great and broken metropolis across three decades. A rich, hallucinatory dream that captures Bombay in all its compelling squalor, Narcopolis completely subverts and challenges the literary traditions for which the Indian novel is celebrated. It is a book about drugs, sex, death, perversion, addiction, love, and God and has more in common in its subject matter with the work of William S. Burroughs or Baudelaire than with that of the subcontinent's familiar literary lights. Above all, it is a fantastical portrait of a beautiful and damned generation in a nation about to sell its soul.