Review of The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

I have to preface this review by saying that The Garden of Evening Mists is by far one of the “slowest” books I’ve ever read. As many reviews have mentioned, Tan attempts to “capture stillness on paper” in the same manner as Aritomo, and I would honestly consider his endeavor a success. The novel is practically a carefully pruned garden itself, with lovely, meditative prose and poignant themes that meld into one another, almost an act of “borrowed scenery” amongst the end-of-empire narrative.