Wow.
This was a beautiful, beautiful book. I will definitely be looking up the author's first novel.
This book moves back and forth in time, from the Japanese occupation of what is now Malaysia, to shortly afterward, to many years later, weaving threads of narrative in and out the entire while. In fact, the novel reads as a sort of verbal Japanese garden as described in the novel--the reader gets just tiny views of the landscape of the novel, revealed bit by bit, carefully crafted by the author so that we do not view too much too soon. Exquisitely done. Perhaps the best novel I've read so far this year. I hear it's up for Man Booker; if something else beats it out, I'll definitely have to read it, as it should be pretty amazing.