The Gardens of Kyoto by Kate Walbert

I liked this book despite the fact that it was non-linear. The narrator is a woman looking back on her youth in Philadelphia in the 1940's and 1950's with a backdrop of World War II and the Korean War. It's a very subtle book, without a lot of action, slow moving and impressionistic in places, vivid and realistic in others. The narrator moves about in time, presenting fragments of memory in some places, longer revelations in others. It's very difficult to do a good job with this kind of structure, yet she pulls it off. It has many small moments of brilliance, and its genius is in the details.

Here is a link to a comprehensive review from Salon.com.
(Book 12, 2006)