Caption: A lively green for the cover design may yet prove an eye-catcher!I'm pretty much delighted to read that Malaysian novelist, Tan Twan Eng, once longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2007 for his first novel, The Gift of Rain, is to have a second one titled The Garden of Evening Mists, out in London on 2 November.
I gather from past observations, that this would mean simultanous distribution in several other countries as well. Like the first novel, the second hardback priced at £18.99 (ISBN: 978-1-905802-04-3) and export paperback, would also be published by independent publisher,Myrmidon Books.
I'm personally excited about the second book but then I normally am about any other novel that would herald the presence of contemporary Malaysian novelists in Britain today. In recent years, we have enjoyed a cheerful number starting with Rani Manicka and this followed by Tash Aw, a little later, Tan and Preeta Samarasan and more recently Shamini Flint and Chiew-Siah Tei.
I am careful to mention the writers who stay the big names and with the exception of Flint at the last count; those who enjoy agented representation, are still in print with mainstream publishing houses and receive absolutely fantastic world distribution.
I believe there is another Malaysian writer in Britain to come; Ivy Ngeow, who was once published by Silverfish (Malaysia) and who won an international literary prize at Middlesex University in 2005, is currently agented but not yet published.
The Gift of Rain received worldwide critical acclaim. During my travels, I remember seeing Tan's novel being displayed for sale in unlikely regions and of course, at several airports while in transit.
Then, Tan had turned his pen to setting his plot in 1939 Penang, thus, etching his story deep into the complexities of an intense Malayan history that occured three years before the rampage and subsequent occupation of the Japanese in World War 2. Tan's storyline later moved beyond.
In the modern tale, an obvious exotic imagery crowns an almost mythical narration on the pain secured from an engagement of risky loyalties and the measured artistry of an opulent indulgence with *aikido, a Japanese culture relying on the searching rules of a life energy, and for which I've often read that Tan is himself famed.
The Garden of Evening Mists returns to a Malaya now 10 years later, in 1949.
In a new plot that bears no relation to the first one, Yun Ling Teoh, a traumatised and solitary survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, still seeks solace from the Northern Malayan jungles close to where she grew up. Thankfully, she hasn't done too badly. With a law degree from Cambridge, she spends her time helping to prosecute Japanese war criminals.
In the midst of her trying time, she stumbles upon Yugiri, a single Japanese garden in Malaya created and owned by Aritomo, an exile and a former gardener to Japan's Emperor. Much as Yun Ling deplores the Japanese people, she feels compelled to request that Aritomo builds her a garden in Kuala Lumpur, in memory of a sister who perished in the prison camp. After an initial refusal, Aritomo eventually agrees with Teoh as his apprentice for a temporal season until the monsoon arrives.
The plot promises to widen and entice its reader with its entrance into the fringes of human intimacy and stirs up strong hints of unanswered questions There are dark secrets wound around the day-to-day realities. All the while, threats of murders and kidnappings from jungle guerrillas, stay one of these.
Why do I feel from just embarking on the summary alone, that here stands a plot, screaming to be turned into an intriguing film...
Tan Twan Eng who lives in Cape Town, South Africa and is now working on his third novel has always provided for high inspirations with regards to an admirable disciplined focus in his attitude towards the subject of novel-writing in general. He is not visible on the virtual networking scene but keeps his presence as a writer vibrant, with consistent appearances at international writing festivals. - susan abraham
*Aikido - Its detailed definition of a Japanese martial art resting on the philosophies of Morihei Ueshiba, may be found HERE. 
Comments