A Book I will never forget - Rated 
This was a true find. I've recommended it to everyone I know. A moving, troubling, unrelenting story of a young man's life and his search for meaning. It was on the Man Booker prize list and it deserved it.
Beautiful book - Rated
I loved this book and was sorry to finish it. The prose is beautiful with not one superfluous word. The story is important and well told. I disagree with some previous reviewers; yes, not all questions are answered and not all motivations are explained, but isn't that just like life? Well done, Tan Twan Eng, please write another book!
a very moving book - Rated 
Philip Hutton is half Chinese and half English but in many ways does not really know where he belongs in the world. He has English siblings and an English father and his mother died when he was still very young. He many ways he perceives himself as an outsider within his family. By chance he strikes up a very powerful friendship with Endo. Endo becomes his mentor and helps him to finally come to terms with himself and who he is and his place in the world, but it comes at a very high price. There is a code of honour running through the whole book, and the descriptions of the whole discipline of aikido makes one want to go out and start training oneself. There were a couple of scenes in the book that moved me to tears which demonstrates how well one becomes drawn into the lives of both Philip and Endo and Philip's family.
A good read mostly! - Rated
The gift of rain succeeds very well in recreating the atmosphere of Penang just before and also during WW2 and the Japanese occupation. It tells the story of young Philip Hutton, half English and half Chinese, who feels at odds with his family as he thinks he doesn't belong to either community.It is also the story of the consuming relationship he builds with his Japanese sensei Endo san and the complex emotions he has to go through as love,faith and admiration have to battle distrust and bitterness and a powerful sense of betrayal when the Japanese finally become the new masters of the island. Philip's life is rendered even more difficult when he decides to collaborate with the invading forces so as to protect his family. A traitor for them and for all the people who knew him when he grew up, he hides the fact that he also betrays his new masters and tries to save lives whenever he can.
The author really succeeded in drawing the different communities and his portrayal of the emotional turmoil of the protagonists doesn't fail to interest and move. It is therefore a pity that the novel has flaws. One of these is that less care has been taken in writing about Philip's English family whose members (apart from his father)seem two dimensional caricatures of real people.Another one is that since, right at the beginning of the book we know that Philip aged 70 or thereabouts is alone in the world, having lost all his family during the war, the writer then has to 'bump ' them all off, (none can be saved)and doesn't always manage to do it creditably (I mean in particular the death of his sister and mostly his father's). How can we believe that while Philip's secret partisan activities have finally been discovered and that he has been branded a traitor and condemned to die, his sensei, however well placed in the Japanese hierarchy, can save his life? ' I can only save one of you, you or your father, and your father wants you to live',this is more or less the content of Endo san 's speech.Highly improbable! As for Philip's only friend's death,here we go again and we are asked to suspend our powers of disbelieving way beyond the reasonable.Kon has been a guerilla fighting the enemy with great success and how does he meet his end? Is he killed by his enemies? No! He is shot at by a female comrade and former lover who 'hasn't been the same since she had to abort the baby she carried'What a logical explanation for shooting the best hope you have of defeating your worst nightmare, namely the Japanese invaders.
It is a great pity that those examples of bad melodrama somewhat detract from the otherwise very good impression the book left.They are however only moments in a long and mostly interesting journey and shouldn't make you feel the book isn't worth reading because it is.
Thought Provoking - Rated
I have a son who practises martial arts - his training has made The Gift of Rain more enjoyable. The mysticism of the Chinese & Japanese cultures set against our own makes for a thoughtful reading. The theme I found most intriguing lies with in the central characters of the book being extremely physically strong but are able to hold back and keep negative thoughts and deeds in check - couple this with an insight to the Buddha way of thinking and you have perhaps a recipe for the idealist way living we may like to aspire to. A simple motto "just because you can doesn't necessary mean you should........" springs to mind. Living with consequences is another theme and becomes more poignant with the passing of time - historical world events underpinnng the storyline have a huge impact on how your view might be changed. For me , Tan Twan is a breathe of fresh air and shows us that authors the world over are able to give us a tantalising glimpse into their cultural worlds
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