The Garden of Evening Mists

De: Tan Twan Eng

Narrado por: 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

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

Mists of memory

The Garden of Evening Mists- Tan Eng



“Memories I had locked away have begun to break free, like shards of ice fracturing off an arctic shelf. In sleep, these broken floes drift toward the morning light of remembrance.”


When Yun Ling first comes to Yugiri in the decade following World War Two she remembers her sister’s death and their three years in a Japanese death camp. When she returns to Yugiri 40 years later, she remembers Aritomo. Aritomo, once the Japanese emperor’s gardener, created Yugiri, the Garden of Evening Mists. The garden was designed and built before the war in the Camaron Highlands of Malaya. Yun Ling has spent most of her life trying to forget, but as her aging brain threatens to erase her memories forever, she begins to record her story.

This is an intricate, layered story that worked beautifully on every level. The prose is poetic and suited to the exotic location. As the story develops, it is filled with details about Japanese gardens, woodblock printing, and surprisingly, tattoos. The characters are flawed, complex, and very real. They are people who grapple with devastating loss, survivor guilt, divided loyalties, and dangerous secrets. In the end some of the secrets are revealed. Some of the truth will never be completely revealed. Despite the lack of definitive answers, the ending of the book felt entirely correct.

Anna Bentinck’s performance of this book was outstanding. She handled all of the character voices and accents perfectly. I was especially impressed that she was able to maintain a consistent voice for Yun Ling while perceptibly aging the voice for the different time periods of the narrative.

A trip to Malaysia in my Mind

This book, beautifully written, brought me back to my own time in Malaysia and Singapore. I loved disappearing into it each day. The reading was well done and caught the accents from the region in a fair manner. However, I did find the book a bit long in places especially the earlier and middle chapters.

This is a very remarkable book

I have now listened to all three of these wonderful books written by TanTwan Eng. this one probably being the most sensitive. This author has a powerful command of the English language, and the prose is almost poetic.

Extraordinary in every way

Beautiful writing. A revelation of Malaysian culture and history. Insight into Asian differences. Memorable and deeply moving. A treasure.

Great book. Just don’t listen to it.

The book itself is fantastic. Highly recommended you read it. But skip the Audible version. As long as the narrator is telling the story, it’s fine. But once she tries a character’s voice, speaking in the dialect of a Japanese or Malaysian or any human, it starts grating on your nerves. Like nails on a chalkboard. A bad Mel Blanc impression.

A tale of good and evil in all of us

A beautiful symphonic tale of the art of Japanese gardening and tattooing, coexisting with torture and suffering. Themes of love in different forms, betrayal and redemption.

A story of sensuousness and beauty bookended by memories and pain and the inevitable realization of impending mortality.

Read or listen to this exquisite story for the languid and poetic narrative and the sensuous depiction of the relationship between the narrator and the Gardner. Beautifully narrated.

A great story exploring coming to terms with life

The story of a woman who has gone from being a prisoner of war during world war ii to being a justice in the Malay supreme court. Through the symbol of a Japanese garden it explores how she comes to tem with some of the disappointments in her life as well as some of her triumphs.

Iron Orchid

What did you love best about The Garden of Evening Mists?

This is an exquisite tale of abuse, self-sufficient survival...and a slow recovery of self. It's set in the exotic (to me) culture of Malaysia during-and-after WWII. An iron-willed Malaysian girl is imprisoned by the marauding Japanese during their invasion of the island at the start of WWII. All is lost during her imprisonment...except her will. She survives but the cost of that survival is significant. Yet, as wounded and defended as she is, she allows life to bring her out of her emotional confinement through her relationship with a Japanese gardener and an Afrikaner champion. The book is unforgettable.

What does Anna Bentinck bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The reader, Anna Bentinck, embodies the complexity of characters...in all of their complexity...with wit and depth. I loved her performance.