
The Samurai's Garden
A Novel
Paperback
Other Editions of This Title:
Digital Audiobook (3/6/2017)
MP3 CD (3/7/2017)
Compact Disc (3/7/2017)
Description
The daughter of a Chinese mother and a Japanese father, Gail Tsukiyama's The Samurai's Garden uses the Japanese invasion of China during the late 1930s as a somber backdrop for this extraordinary story.
A 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen 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.
Praise For The Samurai's Garden: A Novel…
“Tsukiyama brings a fluid, smooth elegance to the complicated story she tells.” —The San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
“An exraordinary graceful and moving novel about goodness and beauty. Tsukiyama is a wise and spellbinding storytelling.” —Booklist
“Beautifully crafted . . . Tsukiyama's writing is crystalline and delicate, and notably in her evocative of time and place.” —Publishers Weekly
St. Martin's Griffin, 9780312144074, 224pp.
Publication Date: April 15, 1996