The Samurai's Garden by Tsukiyama, Gail

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.

Author: Gail Tsukiyama
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Published: 04/15/1996
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.46lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.48w x 0.59d
ISBN: 9780312144074

Review Citation(s):
Booksense '76 Reading Grp 04 05/01/2004 pg. 1
Publishers Weekly 04/29/1996

About the Author

Born to a Chinese mother and a Japanese father in San Francisco, Gail Tsukiyama now lives in El Cerrito, California. Her novels include Dreaming Water, Women of the Silk, The Language of Threads, and Night of Many Dreams.