Wounded, betrayed, and alone, an English boy is thrown into an alien land after a perilous journey to the East. Finding a city of unexpected friends, mysterious manuscripts, and narrow escapes, he discovers that nothing is quite as it seems-neither Asia nor the West, neither the past nor the future, neither wisdom nor foolishness. Brutal revolutionaries wage war in once-quiet halls of learning; a mother and child are smashed and restored; an ancient rite, barely glimpsed, beckons and heals. The Garden of Perfect Clarity evokes the works of Borges, Dickens, and Vodolazkin as it contemplates time, transformation, memory, and repentance in the engrossing story of one man's search for himself.