Tan Twan Eng

It's Malaya, 1949. After studying law at Cambrige and time spent helping to prosecute Japanese war criminals, Yun Ling Teoh, herself the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle fringed plantations of Northern Malaya where she grew up as a child. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the Emperor of Japan....

Phillip Hutton lives on a Malaysian island and befriends Endo-san, a Japanese Zen master, who teaches him akido, but when World War II breaks out and the Japanese invade the island, he is torn between saving the lives of his countrymen and his loyalty to his master.