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Loading... The Samurai's Garden: A Novel (original 1994; edition 1996)by Gail Tsukiyama
Work InformationThe Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama (1994)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Just beautiful. Atmospheric. Heartwarming and heartbreaking. ( ) I wasn't sure I even wanted to read this book because one of my book clubs had read "Women of the Silk" and had decidedly mixed reviews (leaning toward the negative). But I really enjoyed this work. A young Chinese boy from Hong Kong is sent to his family's beach house in Japan to recover from tuberculosis just before WW II breaks out. He meets the gardener, and the gardener's friends (who are lepers). He "falls in love" with a young woman, but the "racial prejudice" of her family thwart their feelings. Tsukiyama is a poetic writer. This is a good book for discussion groups. Much to think (and talk) about
Tsukiyama's writing is crystalline and delicate, notably in her evocation of time and place. This quiet tale of affection between people whose countries are at war speaks of a humanity that transcends geopolitics. Has as a student's study guide
The daughter of a Chinese mother and a Japanese father, Gail Tsukiyama uses the Japanese invasion of China during the late 1930s as a somber backdrop for her unusual story about a twenty-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen who is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from a bout with tuberculosis. Here he is cared for by Matsu, a reticent housekeeper and a master gardener. Over the course of a remarkable year, Stephen learns Matsu's secret and gains not only physical strength but also profound spiritual insight. Matsu is a samurai of the soul, a man devoted to doing good and finding beauty in a cruel and arbitrary world, and Stephen is a noble student, learning to appreciate Matsu's generous and nurturing way of life and to love Matsu's soulmate, gentle Sachi, a woman afflicted with leprosy. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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