The Gift Of Rain

Staff Review This steamy atmospheric novel set in Penang in the years leading up to and during WWII made the Booker longlist, but not the shortlist. Phillip Hutton’s mother was Chinese, his father a wealthy English Penang businessman. Phillip had never felt connected to or accepted by the society in which he lived. He befriends a Japanese consular offi cial, Endo-san, who is also an aikido sensei. Endo-san takes him under his wing and begins to teach him aikido. In return Phillip shows him around the island of Penang, unaware that Endo-san is gathering information for the impending Japanese invasion. When the Japanese eventually occupy Penang, Phillip off ers his services as a facilitator and interpreter in return for a guarantee of his family’s safety. His position is one that he fi nds increasingly diffi cult to reconcile and he begins to leak information to the resistance movement. Gift of Rain is a rich and rewarding historical novel. Interestingly, it reminded me of Greg Roberts’ Shantaram, also published by Scribe. Mark Rubbo is Managing Director of Readings