Reading a novel is one of many ways to enjoy your leisure time. A good novel can make us realize something we have never thought before, or change our point of view about life and things around us, just like The Samurai’s Garden, a novel written by Gail Tsukiyama. The story is about a 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephan who is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village, Tarumi, to recover from tuberculosis. Here he is cared for by Matsu, a 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 spiritual insight. Matsu is a man devoted to doing good and finding beauty in a cruel and arbitrary world and Stephan is a student, learning to appreciate Matsu's generous and nurturing way of life and to love Matsu's soulmate, Sachi, a woman afflicted with leprosy.
Gail Tsukiyama, the writer of the story, uses the Japanese invasion of China during the late 1930s as a backdrop for her story in this novel. She is the bestselling author of five previous novels, including The Samurai’s Garden, as well as a recipient of the Academy of American Poets Award and the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award.
It is stated on the Review: Gail Tsukiyama’s The Samurai’s Garden (2008) that this novel not only confronts us with the many challenges and intricate hardships
of personal loneliness, but it also shines a warm and blinding light on some of the amazing traits that we sometimes must summon to overcome such sorrows. The story carries themes and embraces values which deliver message that reflects the reality of human life and leads us to contemplate the beauty and complexities of our human existence in this world. |