The Garden of Evening Mists

The Independent
"The Garden of Evening Mists offers action-packed, end-of-empire storytelling in the vein of Tan's compatriot Tash Aw. His fictional garden cultivates formal harmony -but also undermines it. It unmasks sophisticated artistry as a partner of pain and lies. This duality invests the novel with a climate of doubt; a mood - as with Aritomo's creation - of "tension and possibility". Its beauty never comes to rest." Boyd Tonkin, The Independent (UK)
"A rising star from Malaysia . . . Tan writes with breath-catching poise and grace. [The Garden of Evening Mists is a novel of] linguistic refinement and searching intelligence. . . . But for all its mission to 'capture stillness on paper'. . . The Garden of Evening Mists also offers action-packed, end-of-empire storytelling."

Dominique Browning, The New York Times Book Review "[A] strong quiet novel [of] eloquent mystery."