The Gift Of Rain

Set in Malaya during World War II, Tan Twan Eng’s coming-of-age novel is a powerful story of divided loyalties, moral dilemmas and human courage.

Malaya, 1939. Sixteen-year-old Philip is of mixed British and Chinese heritage and feels alienated from both communities. He forms an unexpected friendship with Hayato Endo, a Japanese diplomat who trains him in Aikido. But when the Japanese invade, Philip discovers Endo is a spy. Forced into collaborating with the Japanese to safeguard his family he becomes the ultimate outsider, trusted by none and hated by many. A tormented Philip decides to risk everything to make amends.

"What distinguishes The Gift of Rain is its wistful and surprisingly earnest supernaturalism. Its characters all seem to have met in previous lives, been haunted by ancient prophecies, or been cursed to turn into one another. Tan Twan Eng's vision - the detached, aesthetic air, concentration on the visual and racy, episodic plotting -might perhaps have been more naturally realised in a decent Manga production. But this is an accomplished if eccentric, debut."  -  Ed Lake, Sunday Telegraph

Tan Twan Eng's debut novel The Gift of Rain was longlisted for the 2007 Booker Prize and has been widely translated. The Garden of Evening Mists won the Man Asian Literary Prize 2012 and the 2013 Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction and was shortlisted for the 2012 Booker Prize and the 2014 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Tan Twan Eng divides his time between Kuala Lumpur and Cape Town.