As the months pass, Yun Ling finds herself intimately drawn to her sensei and his art while, outside the garden, the threat of murder and kidnapping from the guerrillas of the jungle hinterland increases with each passing day. Aritomo refuses, but agrees to accept Yun Ling as his apprentice "until the monsoon comes." Then she can design a garden for herself. She reminisces on the war, looking back at the years. Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in Kuala Lumpur, in memory of her sister who died in the camp. Ling is the third child of a Malaysian family that was affluent until Japan declared war on their country. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the Emperor of Japan. The Garden of Evening Mists was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2014. In June it won the Walter Scott Prize 2013, from a shortlist of authors which included Hilary Mantel, Rose Tremain, Thomas Keneally, Pat Barker and Anthony Quinn. After studying law at Cambridge and time spent helping to prosecute Japanese war criminals, Yun Ling Teoh, herself the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle fringed plantations of Northern Malaya where she grew up as a child. The Garden of Evening Mists won the Man Asian Literary Prize in March 2013.
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