The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
$7.99
The Gift of Rain
- By: Tan Twan Eng
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin, Luke Thompson
- Length: 16 hrs and 56 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction
About this listen
In the tradition of celebrated wartime storytellers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene, Tan Twan Eng’s debut novel casts a powerful spell.
For the first time, available as an audiobook.
The recipient of extraordinary acclaim from critics and the book-selling community, Tan Twan Eng’s debut novel casts a powerful spell and has garnered comparisons to celebrated wartime storytellers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene. Set during the tumult of World War II, on the lush Malayan island of Penang, The Gift of Rain tells a riveting and poignant tale about a young man caught in the tangle of wartime loyalties and deceits.
In 1939, 16-year-old Philip Hutton – the half-Chinese, half-English youngest child of the head of one of Penang’s great trading families – feels alienated from both the Chinese and British communities. He at last discovers a sense of belonging in his unexpected friendship with Hayato Endo, a Japanese diplomat. Philip proudly shows his new friend around his adored island, and in return Endo teaches him about Japanese language and culture and trains him in the art and discipline of aikido. But such knowledge comes at a terrible price. When the Japanese savagely invade Malaya, Philip realizes that his mentor and sensei – to whom he owes absolute loyalty – is a Japanese spy. Young Philip has been an unwitting traitor, and must now work in secret to save as many lives as possible, even as his own family is brought to its knees.
©2009 Tan Twan Eng (P)2018 Hachette Audio
T
Beautiful and thoughtful writing
This work is a beautiful story that threads its way in between thorny and eternal , profound spiritual questions. It contains violence, none of it gratuitous or excessive.
One of the two narrators is excellent. The other is to phlegmy, and not always fully differentiated between characters.
VEH
A powerful and moving book
Another brilliant book by Tan Twan Eng, set in the Malay region in the early days of WWII, and told through the eyes of an old man looking back on his youth during the time leading up to and including the Japanese occupation of his homeland, and the choices he made at the time. The characters are rich and fully believable, as are the plot lines of family, conflicting loyalties, loss and betrayal. The narrator is excellent. Highly recommended.