The Samurai's Garden (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780312144074)

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
ISBN-10: 0312144075
ISBN-13: 9780312144074
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Language: English
Published: 04/15/1996
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.46lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.48w x 0.59d

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