Popular Asian Historical Books
Find historical books written by authors from Asia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (74)
1.
A Daughter of Han; the Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman by Ida Pruitt, from the story told her by Ning Lao T'ai-t'ai EN
ChinaDescription:
2011 Reprint of 1945 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. In "A Daughter of Han" author Ida Pruitt presents the autobiography of a Chinese working woman. Through this story the reader gains insight into the China of the poor, of women, and of the provinces. The subject of the autobiography, Ning Lao Tai-Tai, is also interesting as she lived in the period, the late 19th to mid 20th century, during which China underwent its most dramatic changes. This is a genuine, warm-blooded, dramatic chronicle of a woman's life, of the life of one... continue
Georgia3.
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth EN
IndiaDescription:
Vikram Seth's novel is, at its core, a love story: Lata and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, are both trying to find -- through love or through exacting maternal appraisal -- a suitable boy for Lata to marry. Set in the early 1950s, in an India newly independent and struggling through a time of crisis, A Suitable Boy takes us into the richly imagined world of four large extended families and spins a compulsively readable tale of their lives and loves. A sweeping panoramic portrait of a complex, multiethnic society in flux, A Suitable Boy remains the story of ordinary people caught up in a web of l... continue
4.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini EN
Country: Asia / 
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, the #1 New York Times bestseller A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love. “Just as good, if not better, than Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling first book, The Kite Runner.”—Newsweek Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today. Born a generation apart a... continue
5.
Armerian Golgotha by Grigoris Balakian EN
ArmeniaDescription:
On April 24, 1915, Grigoris Balakian was arrested along with some 250 other leaders of Constantinople’s Armenian community. It was the beginning of the Ottoman Empire’s systematic attempt to eliminate the Armenian people from Turkey—a campaign that continued through World War I and the fall of the empire. Over the next four years, Balakian would bear witness to a seemingly endless caravan of blood, surviving to recount his miraculous escape and expose the atrocities that led to over a million deaths. Armenian Golgotha is Balakian’s devastating eyewitness account—a haunting reminder of the firs... continue
6.
Bangkok Wakes to Rain : A Novel by Pitchaya Sudbanthad EN
ThailandDescription:
"A house in the center of Bangkok becomes the point of confluence where lives are shaped by upheaval, memory, and the lure of home. Witness to two centuries' flux in one of the world's most restless cities, a house plays host to longings and losses past, present, and future. A nineteenth-century missionary doctor pines for the comforts of New England even as he finds the vibrant foreign chaos of Siam increasingly difficult to resist. A post-war society woman marries, mothers, and holds court, little suspecting the course of her future. A jazz pianist is summoned in the 1970s to conjure music t... continue
7.
Beirut by Samir Kassir EN
LebanonDescription:
Beirut is a tour de force that takes the reader from the ancient to the modern world, offering a dazzling panorama of the city's Seleucid, Roman, Arab, Ottoman, and French incarnations. Kassir vividly describes Beirut's spectacular growth in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, concentrating on its emergence after the Second World War as a cosmopolitan capital until its near destruction during the devastating Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990. --from publisher description.
8.
Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour, David Hazard EN
PalestineDescription:
The unforgettable story of Elias Chacour, a Palestinian Christian with deep love for both Jews and Arabs. The birth of the modern Jewish nation is set against ancient and modern history.
9.
Catfish and Mandala : A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew X. Pham EN
VietnamDescription:
A collection of memoirs recounting the journey of a Vietnamese-American touring Vietnam and the Pacific rim in search of cultural identity.
10.
Cities of Salt by Abdelrahman Munif, Abd al-Raḥmān Munīf EN
JordanDescription:
Banned in Saudia Arabia, this is a blistering look at Arab and American hypocrisy following the discovery of oil in a poor oasis community. "From the Trade Paperback edition.