The Garden of Evening Mists

The novel’s narrator and protagonist, Teoh Yun Ling is a complex and round character whose development is central to the narrative. Initially defined by the deep trauma of her past, she evolves through her confrontation with memory, art, and the ambiguities of forgiveness. As a retired Supreme Court judge experiencing progressive aphasia, she serves as an unreliable narrator, not due to any deliberate deception but because of the fractured nature of her memory, which she attempts to piece together by writing her story. Her journey is one of moving from a rigid demand for justice to a more nuanced understanding of healing and reconciliation.

One of Yun Ling’s defining traits is a profound and justified resentment born from her experiences in a secret Japanese labor camp during the Japanese occupation of Malaya (now Malaysia) during World War II. The physical and psychological scars of the camp, including the loss of her sister and two of her own fingers, fuel a deep-seated hatred for the Empire of Japan and the Japanese state that succeeds it. This animosity initially motivates her work at the War Crimes Tribunal and later informs her fury when the Japan Peace Treaty waives all reparation claims for victims like her.