Elderly Philip Hutton is the last surviving member of one of Penang's trading families when the bachelor quiet of his life is shattered by an unexpected visitor, a Japanese woman called Michiko Murakami. And although they have never met before, their histories are interlinked: both cared deeply for the same man, Hayato Endo, and need to find relief for past pain by sharing their life-stories.
Philip first meets the enigmatic Endo, a Japanese diplomat who is leasing a small island from Phillip's father, in 1939. Half-British, half-Chinese Philip is a loner and a misfit, and finds himself drawn into a relationship with Endo, who takes him on as his student and teaches him aikido-jitsu - a martial art still in its infancy, as well as the Japanese language and culture. As the clouds of war grow increasingly ominous, it is clear that Endo is training Phillip in skills which will eventually save his life. But is Endo all that he appears to be, and should Phillip be prepared to trust him? Once the Japanese invade, Philip is forced to make the most difficult decisions about where his loyalties must lie.
There is a tremendous amount of historical fact and, of course, as in any Malaysian novel aimed at an international readership, a great deal of information on the complex social background of the country. What is quite amazing is that despite this the pace of the story never becomes bogged down by a heavy load of background detail. Indeed where the novel succeeds best is in the strong drive of the narrative, and in the painstaking recreation of the setting.
Penang of the thirties and forties is brought to life so well that you feel that you could almost be reading a contemporary account. Particularly vivid are the scenes of the British attempting the flee Penang during the first air-raids, and the harrowing scene of a village massacre.
Although written in a style that deliberately does not draw attention to itself, the novel unashamedly draws on romantic oriental elements with the deliberate chinoiserie of the imagery (the waves unroll like Chinese scrolls, the clouds are compared a dragon's belly) and the delicate motifs of insects - fireflies, butterflies and dragonflies which each represent an aspect of the story.
"The Gift of Rain" is in every sense a "big" book, not only substantial in size, but also in theme, and in the amount of incident that is crammed into it. It's hard to know just how to pigeonhole it. Literary fiction? Thriller? Historical novel? Big screen kung-fu movie with Hollywood glitz and glamour translated to the page? The novel combines elements of all of these, yet succeeds very much on its own term, raising important questions about loyalty and betrayal, predestination and free will.
