The Best Asian Literature, Historical Fiction and Audiobooks - ASIA BOOKS -
Saigon: An Epic Novel of Vietnam
Anthony Grey 2016
About the experiences of American Joseph Sherman in Vietnam from the 1920’s to the fall of Saigon.
The Folded Earth
Anuradha Roy 2012
The secluded village at the foot of the Himalaya’s is not that peaceful as is seems to be, when Maya arrives.
Without You, There Is No Us
Suki Kim 2012
In 2011 author Suki Kim spends 6 months as a teacher at an University in Pyongyang. Her account of this closed of country and how the people cope in this closed of world is bizarre and impressive.
The Ghost Bride
Yangsze Choo 2013
Historical fiction and mystery set in Malaysia about a ghost bride who meets her deceased husband.
Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche
Haruki Murakami 2013
Murakami interviews victims of the 1995 Gas Attack in Tokyo and members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, who were responsible.
The Hungry Tide
Amitav Ghosh 2005
Imagine yourself in the fascinating remote area of the Sunderbans, still the habitat of the man eating Bengal Tiger and follow the story of Pia and Fokir.
The Vegetarian: A Novel
Han Kang 2016
The decision of a wife o become a vegetarian. This sets into motion events that interrupts her marriage and the relations with the people she loves.
In the Shadow of the Banyan: A Novel
Vaddey Ratner 2012
About young Raami and her family who tried to survive the horrors of Pol Pot’s genocide.
A Daughter's Memoir of Burma
Wendy Law-Yone 2016
A biography of Wendy Law Yone’s father about Burma/Myanmar.
Do Not Say We Have Nothing
Madeleine Thien 2016
During the Cultural revolution three musicians struggle to remain loyal to one another but also to the music they have devoted their lives to.
A Suitable Boy
This family saga is set in a town on the Ganges and follows the lives of four families during one and a half year. Mrs. Rupa Mehra's tries to find a ‘suitable boy’ to marry her daughter, Lata. But Lata is an university student and does not want her mother to arrange her marriage. Instead she wants to make her own choice. But is she willing and capable to fight against the family traditions and choose for love and independence?
The sequel ‘A Suitable Girl’ is expected to be published in 2017
The Golden Son
Shilpi Somaya Gowda 2015
Anil Patel, ‘the golden son’, is the first of his family to go to college and he starts a medical residency in Dallas. But when his father dies, Anil becomes the head of the household and the successor of his fathers role as an arbiter for the village’s disputes. But Anil doubts if he can set forth this family tradition. And Leena, Anil’s childhood friend, tries to adapt into her new role as a wife. But her arranged marriage doesn’t make her happy and she makes a choice that will has drastic consequences for herself and her family.
The Association of Small Bombs: A Novel
Karan Mahajan 2016
When brothers Tushar and Nakul Khurana and their friend Mansoor Ahmed, pick up a family’s television set at a repair shop in Delhi, a bomb detonates in a busy Delhi marketplace.The two brothers lose their lives, but Mansoor, traumatised by the bombing, survives and is going to study in America. When the story of the grieving Khurana parents unfold, Mansoor returns to Delhi, where he meets Ayub, a fearless young activist and Shockie, a Kashmiri bomb maker.
Historical Fiction
The classic and bestseller of books about Geisha's in Japan. Adapted into a movie...read more
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
Set in Penang Malaysia just before and during the Second World War, the exciting story of Philip and Endo, a mysterious aikido master ...read more
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
Memoirs of a Geisha
Sea of Poppies
The Gift of Rain
The Orphan Master's Son
Arthur Golden
Amitav Ghosh
Tan Twan Eng
Adam Johnson
The Last Time I Saw Mother
Caridad receives a letter from her mother in Manilla to visit her. Will Caridad finally learn the secrets of the past?
Arlene J. Chai 1997
Contemporary Literature
Dusk
F. Sionil Jose
Historical fiction
F. Sionil Jose, born in 1924, is one of the most famous authors of the Philippines. His stories are are about the effect of class struggle and colonialism on society.
One of his best known writing is the Rosales Saga, that consists of five novels spanning a hundred years Philippine history. ‘Dusk’ ( published as Po’on in the Philippines) is the first part of this saga and set in the 1880’s narrates the story of the Samson family.
The Umbrella Country
Bino A. Realuyo, 1999
Contemporary Literature
In the chaotic street life of Manila we follow the story of eleven year old Gringo and his family.
The revelation of secrets of their past trigger events that leave no one untouched.
The Mango Bride
Marivi Soliven
2013
Immigrant Literature
Two Filipino women, Amparo and Beverly (a mail order bride), are trying to build a better life in America, adapting to the difficult immigrant circumstances and overcoming their troubled pasts.
Remote Places ...
From Himalayan Foothills to Tropical Islands
Wolf Totem
Chen Zhen works in China’s Inner Mongolia region as part of a movement to modernise the countryside. As he admires the lifestyle of the nomadic herdsmen there, he is also fascinated by the fierce and otherworldly Mongolian wolf. But when government policies threaten the wolves’ extinction, he sees an unfolding ecological tragedy—and a parable for China’s explosive growth.
In 2015 the book was made into the movie Wolf Totem.
Jiang Rong 2004
semi - autobiography
Kinder Than Solitude: A Novel
Yiyun Li
2015
The childhood friend Moran, Ruyu, and Boyang are involved in a mysterious accident in which a friend of theirs is poisoned. But was it an accident?
Years later when they are grown up and all live their own lives, Morann and Ruyu in America and Boyand in China, they are still haunted by what happened when they were young. Will they eventually find out the true circumstances of that day, might one of them have committed a murder?
Three Sisters
Bi Feiyu 2010
Winner of the 2010 Man Asia Literary Prize.
Three sisters of the Wang family struggle to survive in the aftermath of China's Cultural Revolution and its rapid modernisation. Yumi, as eldest sister , takes her responsibilities in the large household and tries to retain her dignity as her marriage falters, whilst the beautiful Yuxiu explores her talent for seduction and manipulation. The youngest, the intelligent Yuyang, puts all her energy in studying hard and creating a professional life for herself.
The Calligrapher's Daughter: A Novel
Set in the early-twentieth-century Korea, Najin Han, the daughter of a calligrapher, is sent to serve in the king’s court as a companion to a young princess. But when the king is assassinated, the centuries-old dynasty comes to its end and Najin wants to choose her own path, despite the oppressive traditions and the political turmoil of the war and the Japanese occupation.
Eugenia Kim 2009
Historical Fiction
When My Name Was Keoko
Linda Sue Park 2012
Sun-hee and her older brother, Tae-yul, live in Korea with their parents. Because Korea is under Japanese occupation, the children have to study Japanese and speak it at school. When World War II breaks out the Japanese expect their Korean subjects to fight on their side. Tae-yul got enlisted in the Japanese army, whilst his uncle is suspected of aiding the Korean resistance. Sun-hee stays behind, entrusted with the life-and-death secrets of a family at war.
The Vegetarian: A Novel
Han Kang 2016
Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But dreams of blood and cruelty torture Yeong-hye at night and onde day she decides to become a vegetarian. This decision sets into motion an increasingly grotesque chain of events at home interrupting her marriage and the relations with the people she loves.
Winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2016
Forgotten Country
Catherine Chung
2013
The night before Janie’s sister, Hannah, is born, her grandmother tells her a story about the past and Janie is told to keep Hannah safe. Years later, when Hannah cuts all ties with her family and disappears, Janie goes to find her. Thus begins a journey that will force her to confront the truth behind her parents’ sudden move to America twenty years earlier, and her own conflicted feelings toward Hannah.
Top 5 All Time Bestsellers
Kitchen
Sleeping On Jupiter
Anuradha Roy
Two beautiful Japanese stories of young women and their coping with loss ... more about Kitchen
While Nomi visits the worshippers town of Jarmuli to come to terms with her traumatic youth she meets
three elderly women who are on a vacation... more
Aravind Adiga
The White Tiger
This is the story of the once poor Balram who puts everything in his goal to become a rich man he ultimately transcends his low caste ... read more
-
1Q84
-
Wind/Pinball
-
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World