The Samurai's Garden

The daughter of a Chinese mother and a Japanese father, Tsukiyama uses the Japanese invasion of China during the late 1930s as a somber backdrop for her unusual story about a 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen who 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.
Born to a Chinese mother and a Japanese father in San Francisco, Gail Tsukiyama now lives in El Cerrito, California. Her other novels include "Dreaming Water, Women of the Silk," "The Language of Threads," and "Night of Many Dreams." In this widely popular novel--with over 100,000 copies in print--beloved California author Tsukiyama uses the Japanese invasion of China during the late 1930s as the somber backdrop for an unusual story about a 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen Chan.
When Stephen is sent, on the eve of World War II, to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from tuberculosis, he comes under the care of Matsu, a reticent housekeeper and master gardener. Over the course of a remarkable year, Stephen learns Matsu's secrets, gaining not only physical strength but profound spiritual insight. For Matsu is a samurai of the soul, a man devoted to doing good and finding beauty in a cruel and arbitrary world. In Stephen he finds a noble student, one eager to appreciate Matsu's generous and nurturing life ways--and to love Matsu's soulmate, gentle Sachi, a woman afflicted with leprosy.
Sensitive, genuine, insightful, and accessible--equally rich in its compelling characters and situations--"The Samurai's Garden" is a well-written, multi-faceted story blending art, culture, society, history, and personal experience. "Tsukiyama brings a fluid, smooth elegance to the complicated story she tells.""--San Francisco Chronicle Book Review"
"An exraordinarily graceful and moving novel about goodness and beauty. Tsukiyama is a wise and spellbinding storyteller.""--Booklist "
"Austerely beautiful . . . A book to be read slowly and savored."--"Anniston Star "(Texas)
"Beautifully crafted . . . Tsukiyama's writing is crystalline and delicate, most notably in her evocation of time and place.""--Publishers Weekly"