The Best Asian Literature, Historical Fiction and Audiobooks - ASIA BOOKS -
Fascinating and colourful Asia, from spiritual India across Burma, Vietnam and China to the mystic islands of the Philippines. All with their own impressive history, religion, culture and literary traditions.
For everyone who is interested in Asian culture, its people and history, this site offers a collection of the best contemporary literature, historical fiction and beautiful stories set in Asia on audio books.
“It is literature which for me opened the mysterious and decisive doors of imagination and understanding. To see the way others see. To think the way others think. And above all, to feel” - Salman Rushdie
New Releases - Asian Literature
Literature is such a profound and deep way to look into someone else's life, his mind, his hopes and thoughts. Books have opened so many doors for me, taking me to places where my normal life and its finite limits could never have. Jhumpa Lahiri
Music of the Ghosts: A Novel
The new novel from the author of ‘In the Shadow of the Banyan’ is about Teera who fled Cambodia during the Pol Pot regime when she was a child. Now in her mid thirties and living in the US she receives a letter from someone who wants to tell her about her father, who disappeared during the Cambodian horror regime. When Teera returns to her homeland she meets the author of the letter, an elderly man who plays music at a temple. The ‘Old Musician, as he is called, tells Teera about what happened to her father.
April 2017
Set in the late 1980’s in Mumbai Tara and Mukta are close childhood friends. Mukta is a servant for the family of Tara and when in the aftermath of the 1993 bombings in Mumbai Tara and her father move to the States, Mukta stays behind and is sold in the sex trade.
Tara not only grieves for the loss of her childhood friend but also struggles with feelings of guilt. More than 10 years later Tara returns to India to find Mukta.
April 2017
The Color of Our Sky: A Novel
The Leavers: A Novel
The mother of eleven year old Deming Guo, who is living in the Bronx, suddenly appears one day, leaving no trace of her whereabouts. Deming is taken into the care of a couple who want him to become a real ‘American boy’ and they rename him Daniel.
But Deming cannot adapt to his new identity and for years he tries to find the truth behind his mothers disappearance.
May 2017
Rich People Problems: A Novel
The popular writer Kevin Kwan, born in Singapore, wrote a new book about the rivalries, intrigues and jealousy within the rich upperclass of Asian families. When the grandmother of Nicholas is dying, relatives from all over the world suddenly turn up to make a claim on the upcoming heritage. What follows are hilarious situations of backstabbing, love schemes, kidnappings and conflicts between the different family members.
May 23, 2017
This story takes place in the small Town of Pebble at the foot of snowcapped mountains. Each chapter focusses on different inhabitants of this magical world and their encounters with surreal, mysterious and spiritual creatures.
Can Xue
March 2017
Frontier
Remains of Life: A Novel
In 1930, when Taiwan was occupied by the Japanese, an uprising took place in an aboriginal village in the mountains of Taiwan. The Atayal tribe had killed more then hundred Japanese in a headhunting ritual. In response japan carried out heavy air attacks, including attacks with toxic gas, resulting in an almost complete extermination of the Atayal tribe.
Wu He
Originally published in Chinese in 1999 English translation April 2017
In a real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read. It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish. S. I. Hayakawa
Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.
Gao Xingjian
The Boy in the Earth
A taxi driver, driving the night shift in Tokyo, picks up different people and although the encounters with his customers are brief and superficially they bring back memories of his past, and the violence in his childhood. Ultimately he starts thinking of suicide and his obsessive thoughts become terrifying blackout episodes.
April 2017
Fuminori Nakamura
An illustrated story of the escape of the writer’s family after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and their struggle to build up a new life in the United States. In that time Thi Bui was still a child, now being a mother she looks back on the effects of the war and immigration.
Thi Bui
March 2017
The Best We Could Do
The Hour of Daydreams
Manolo Lualhati, a respected doctor in the Philippine countryside, believes his wife Tala hides a secret. As Tala tries to keep her dangerous past from her husband, Manolo begins questioning the gaps in her stories—and his suspicions push him even further from the truth.
March 2017
New Releases - Audio Books Asia
The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea
Bandi, April 2017
Between 1989 and 1995, a North Korean writer (by the pseudonym of Bandi), started in secret to write stories about ordinary people’s daily life under Kim Il-sung's totalitarian regime. In 2013 his manuscripts were smuggled out of the country and the seven short stories illustrating the absurdity and horrifying character of the North Korean dictatorship are now published.
Ghachar Ghochar
Vivek Shanbhag, February 2017
The life of a young man and his family, suddenly changes when his uncle makes a fortune in the spice trade in India. From being poor and making ends meet they have to adjust to a world where old values are replaced by conflicting loyalties, intimidation and the consequences of being rich.
The Samurai's Garden: A Novel
Gail Tsukiyama and David Shih, March 2017
In 1938, 20 year old Stephen is sent from Hong Kong to Tarumi, a small Japanese fishing village to recover from tuberculosis. There Stephen becomes fascinated by the mysterious past of the family’s caretaker Matsu. His friendship with Matsu and Stephen’s discovery of the love affair of his father makes him doubt if he wants to return to Hong Kong.
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
Lisa See and Ruthie Ann Miles, March 2017
Li Yan and her family live in a remote mountain village in China. They live by the growing of tea. But when a stranger arrives in the village will their peaceful lives change dramatically.
The Killing Zone
Frederick Downs, March 2017
In 1967 Frederick Downs arrived in Vietnam enlisted in the US army. He describes the cruelties of the war and what happened to the soldiers after they returned home.
When I Turned Nineteen: A Vietnam War Memoir
by Glyn Haynie and Kelly Klaas, March 2017
About the Author’s experience in Vietnam. Glyn Haney was nineteen-year-old when he was drafted to join the First Platoon in 1969. Glyn Haynie: “I share my experiences about weeks of boredom and minutes to hours of terror and surviving the heat, carrying a 60-pound rucksack, monsoons, a forest fire, a typhoon, building a firebase, fear, death and fighting the enemy while mentally, physically, and morally exhausted”.
The Best Asian Literature and Audio Books - Bestsellers
Asian literature is evolving with the people. It's always a reflection on what's happening to the culture at large. Kevin Kwan
It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth. Gao Xingjian
The Sympathizer: A Novel
Winner 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
April 1975, just before Saigon will fall into the hands of the Communist army. A South Vietnamese captain makes a list of those who be on the last flights out of Vietnam. But the trusted captain, the ‘Sympathizer’ is a spy for the North Vietnamese and he betrayes the ones he loves most.
The Association of Small Bombs
Karan Mahajan
The brothers Tushar and Nakul Khurana die when a bomb detonates in a Delhi marketplace. Their friend Mansoor survives and leaves for the States to study. But when Mansoor returns to India, he meets Ayub, a young activist and Shockie, a Kashmiri bomb maker.
Kiran Desai, 2005
The seventeen year old Sai lives with her grandfather Jemubhai, a retired judge, in the mountains of Kalimpong. Sai starts a relationship with her Nepalese tutor, Gyan, who joined a group of Nepalese insurgents. When a gang of Nepalese boys ransack the house and threaten with violence, the lives of Sai, her grandfather and their cook descend into chaos. Interwoven with the story set in India is the story of the cook’s son Biju as he struggles to survive as an illegal immigrant in the United States.
Kafka On The Shore
Follow the adventures of the 15 years old Kafka, who is fleeing his violent father, and Nakata, who can talk to cats.
The Wangs vs. the World
Jade Chang
Charles Wang, once immigrated to America, has lost his fortune that he made in the cosmetics industry. Gone are his luxuries and pride. Now, he wants to return to China to reclaim his ancestral lands and make a fresh start in his home country. But before his family members are ready to join him Charles first has to make a journey through America.
In the first story Kitchen, Mikage spends a lot of time in the kitchen trying to overcome her grief for her grandmother who has passed away. But then she meets Yuichi and his mother Eriko. In the story Moonlight Shadow Satsuki and Hiirage both handle their loss of a beloved one in their own different way.
Jhumpa Lahiri
Subhash and Udayan are inseparable brothers. In the 1960’s Udayan is swept up in India’s Naxalite rebellion. Fighting against poverty and inequality Udayan will risk all for what he believes in. But Subhash, does not share his brother’s political passion, he leaves home to pursue a career in America. When Subhash learns what happened to his brother at family’s home, he goes back to India, where he finds a shattered family.
Trinity Fields
Best friends Kip and Brice are born in 1944, but in adulthood in the mid 60’s their lives separate. Brice becomes an anti-war activist and Kip goes to Vietnam. Whilst Kip is involved into the covert war in Laos, Brice marries Jessica, the woman both Brice and Kip love. Twenty five years later Kip returns home to reclaim what was lost and so threatens to shatter everything his old friend Brice has built up.
Bestsellers - Audio Books Asia
Memoirs of a Geisha
Arthur Golden and Bernadette Dunne, 2001
Set in 1929 in Japan, Chiyo Sakamoto is nine when she is sold to a geisha boarding house in Kyoto. Her sister Satsu, who is less attractive than Chiyo is forced into prostitution. Although desperately wanting to return home, she gradually acquiesces in her fate as she learns the rigorous art of the geisha and learns to compete with her rivals for the admiration of men and the money that goes with it. Over the years Chiyo becomes one of the most wanted Geisha’s: Geisha Sayuri. But then the war breaks out and in order to survive Sayuri has to take a calculated risk.
In the Shadow of the Banyan: A Novel
Vaddey Ratner and Greta Lee 2012
The childhood of seven year old Raami ends when the Khmer Rouge army enter the streets of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Over the next four years the life of Raami and her family is shattered by Pol Pot's genocide Her father is killed and most of her family perished and she and her mother exiled to the countryside into forced labour. But the young girl tries to survive by remembering the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father.
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War
Karl Marlantes and Bronson Pinchot, 2010
Set in Vietnam in 1969, this book describes the experiences of the author, who commanded a Marine rifle platoon and the hardships endured by the Marines. ‘Matterhorn’ is the code name for a support base located between Laos and the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). After the Marines were ordered to abandon the base, it fell into the hands of the North Vietnamese. Later the Bravo company tried to retake the base.
Life of Pi
Yann Martel and Jeff Woodman
Pi grows up in Pondicherry, India. His father owns a zoo and Pi loves the animals, especially a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. When the municipality is no longer supporting the zoo, his father decides to move to Canada where the animals will be sold. Together with all the animals, they board a cargo ship. A huge storm breaks out and the ship capsized taking everything into the deep waters.
But Pi survives and when he wakes up from the storm he is in a small lifeboat with a zebra, an orang-utan, a hyena and the Bengal tiger Richard Parker. In order to survive Pi realises that he needs Richard Parker. Overcoming life threatening hardships in the middle of the never ending Pacific Ocean, a special bond between Pi and Richard Parker begins to evolve.
The Garden of Evening Mists
Tan Twan Eng
Set in the Cameron Highlands in the 1950's. About Yun's traumatic memories of the WOII and her relation with the mysterious Arimoto, once the gardener of the emperor of Japan.
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats
Jan-Philipp Sendker
When New York lawyer, Tin Win, suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia have any idea where he might be…until they find an never sent love letter. Many years ago Tin Win wrote this letter to a Burmese woman, Mi Mi. Intent on solving this mystery and coming to terms with her father’s past, Julia decides to travel to the village Kalaw in Burma where she meets an mysterious old man, U Ba. U Ba tells Julia the romantic and tragic story of her father, of his childhood blindness, his education at a monastery, and about his passion for Mi Mi.
A Dead Hand - A Crime in Calcutta - Paul Theroux
Writer Jerry investigates the truth about the fascinating Mrs. Unger amidst adventurous Calcutta.
Whispering Shadows
Jan Philipp Sendker
Paul, living on an island at the coast of Hong Kong, sets on a dangerous journey to investigate a murder.
All She Was Worth
Miyuki Miyabe
Why did the Japanese woman Shoko disappear and is she really the person she claims to be?
The Salaryman's Wife
Sujata Massey
Follow amateur detective Rei Shimura in her adventures trough contemporary Japan.
The Best Historical Fiction Books Asia
Memoirs of a Geisha
Arthur Golden
The classic and bestseller of books about Geisha's in Japan. Adapted into a movie...read more
The Glass Palace
Amitav Ghosh
Sea of Poppies
Set sail on the ship the Ibis and live in the 19th century among people who travelled between India, China and
Mauritius...about The Ibis Trilogy
The Orphan Master's Son
Pak Jun Do's role as a spy and hero of the state North Korea is turned into one of a prisoner in a labor camp ...Pulitzer Prize Winner 2013 ...more
