Reviews

The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng

cal337's review against another edition

4.0

What wasted talent. The book starts off beautifully, and describes well one of my favorite cities in the world, Penang. It covers a really dramatic and dark period in Penang's history and features some compelling characters, but goes off the rails on a number of occasions. The incredible story gets ruined by overly grandiose writing and incredulous plot decisions. Overall there is enough greatness in this book for me to recommend and to continue following the author.

appy08's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

A beautiful book about love and friendship.

mjwilson22's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

clarkeyhk's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

ellibe's review against another edition

informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

chou520's review against another edition

5.0

i literally think this might be the best book ever written anyway here's my six page review <3 https://scheherazad.substack.com/p/the-dichotomy-between-love-and-duty

zenocorsini's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

missyjohnson's review against another edition

4.0

Beautifully written book of such an ugly time. The Japanese take over the island of Panang in Mayaya during WWII. Endo-san becomes friends with Philip Hutton and becomes his sensei. Throughout the entire book, I was never really sure if the friendship was genuine or a farce as Philip was used by Endo in order to learn about the island for the Japanese. I also had such a hard time with some of the decisions that the young Philip made. Is the obligation to duty or to family? Excellent book. Quite a few highlights for me in this book

bandreea's review against another edition

slow-paced

4.0

floating_shiori's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

5.0

Born and raised in Penang, Malaya, between British father and Chinese mother, struggling with the uncertainty where he belongs to. He finds himself through spending time with a Japanese aikido coach and learning aikido and inner strength. but this was the war time and Japanese threat was approaching…
As a Japanese person traveling in Asia permanently, it was nice encounter with this book when I was staying in Penang.
Curious other books of the same author.