Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - The Samurai's Garden

The Samurai's Garden
The Samurai's Garden
Author: Gail Tsukiyama
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 car...  more »
Info icon
The Market's bargain prices are even better for Paperbackswap club members!
Retail Price: $15.99
Buy New (Paperback): $12.79 (save 20%) or
Become a PBS member and pay $8.89+1 PBS book credit Help icon(save 44%)
ISBN-13: 9780312144074
ISBN-10: 0312144075
Publication Date: 4/15/1996
Pages: 211
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 229

4 stars, based on 229 ratings
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed The Samurai's Garden on
Helpful Score: 6
This write is awesome! She really paints a picture with her words. This story really gives great insight into the life of a Chinese boy and his coming of age in the Japanese culture as the Japanese army is invading China. He is sent to his grandfather's beach house to recouperate from an illness and lives with the remaining servant there. This old man teaches him many things and introduces him to the lepers in a nearby colony. The young man learns to think outside himself and feel empathy and compassion for others. I won't tell more about the book because you need to read it!
earlsgirl avatar reviewed The Samurai's Garden on + 188 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 6
This is a soft, bittersweet story about a young Chinese man with tuberculosis who recuperates in Japan during the Japanese sweep of China in 1937. A wonderful story by Gail Tsukiyama. All of her books are beautifully written and unforgetable.
reviewed The Samurai's Garden on + 39 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
An extraordinarily graceful and moving novel about goodness and beauty. Tsukimaya is a wise and spellbinding storyteller
reviewed The Samurai's Garden on + 41 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
If the word "gentle" could be used to describe a style of writing...
this book is gently written. It's a coming of age story for a 20 yr. old young man sent away to recuperate from tuberculosis. He meets some very interesting people who befriend him.
reviewed The Samurai's Garden on + 27 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Touching and reserved love story between a very reserved Japanese household serving-man and a once lovely disfigured woman, as seen through the eyes of a Chinese boy who has been sent to his summer home in Japan to recover from TB. Takes place just before WWII.
Read All 42 Book Reviews of "The Samurais Garden"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

marypat avatar reviewed The Samurai's Garden on
I just finished reading Gail Tsukiyamas The Samaurais Garden. I can only try to describe how I felt while reading and how I feel now that Ive come to the end. The story is simple but highly thought provoking. As I became comfortable with Ms. Tsukiyamas writing style, which is uncluttered and pure in the Japanese fashion, I found myself calming into an almost meditative state. Her prose flows like a gently babbling brook; or, more accurately, like the movement of the bamboo rake drawn through the pebbles of Sachis, one of the characters, stone garden. It is sparse but completely adequate to convey the characters' messages of gentleness, strength, courage, fortitude and natural beauty.

During the course of reading, when I found it necessary to put the book down for whatever reason, I found myself transformed and would feel the need to regroup, mentally and emotionally, back into my world. Then, when I picked it up to begin reading again I found myself tumbling gently back into the world Ms. Tsukiyama's characters and story had created. I became an an active observer of Stephen, the narrator, Matsu, the caretaker and gardener, and Sachi, the beautiful leper. I was mesmerized by their personalities and wisdom, simplicity and the care they took in living their lives. The book became a form of meditation that stays with me now as I reflect.
Yoni avatar reviewed The Samurai's Garden on + 327 more book reviews
An absolutely gorgeous piece of prose.
reviewed The Samurai's Garden on
An evocative story that remains with you long after you have finished the last page. Tsukiyama is a fine writer. I have enjoyed all of her books. This one is no exception.

Book Wiki

Real Places
Important Events

Genres: