Popular Asian Historical Fiction Books
Find historical fiction books written by authors from Asia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (234)
121.
Mother of Strangers : A Novel by Suad Amiry EN
PalestineDescription:
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR from NPR • Set in Jaffa in between 1947 and 1951, this “fable-like historical novel of young love ... darkly humorous and touching” (Oprah Daily) is based on a true story during the beginning of the destruction of Palestine and displacement of its people. Based on the true story of two Jaffa teenagers, Mother of Strangers follows the daily lives of Subhi, a fifteen-year-old mechanic, and Shams, the thirteen-year-old student he hopes to marry one day. In this prosperous and cosmopolitan port city, with its bustling markets, cinemas, and cafés on the hills overlooking the... continue
122.
Mothersland by Shahzādah Samarqandī EN
Country: Asia / 
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Description:
"A novel on the bond between a mother and daughter in late Soviet-era Uzbekistan"--
123.
My First and Only Love by Sahar Khalifeh EN
Description:
A deeply poetic account of love and resistance through a young girl's eyes by acclaimed writer, Sahar Khalifeh, called "the Virginia Woolf of Palestinian literature" (Börsenblatt) After many decades of restless exile, Nadal returns to her family home in Nablus, where she had lived with her grandmother before the 1948 Nakba that scattered her family across the globe. She was a young girl when the popular resistance began and, through the bloodshed and bitter struggle, Nidal fell in love with Rabie, a freedom fighter. He was her first and only real love--him and all that he represented: Palestin... continue
124.
Night Birds and Other Stories by Khet Mar EN
MyanmarDescription:
Since the age of 19, Khet Mar has been persecuted by the Burmese government enduring arrests, torture, incarcerations, and threats to her life. She fought back through her writing, political activism, and social work until she was forced to flee the country in 2009. Her novel Night Birds was banned in 1993, her nonfiction piece Life Row blacklisted in 2007. The same year, the government censored several paragraphs of Night Flow, highlighted in this book.
125.
Nights of Plague : A novel by Orhan Pamuk EN
TurkeyDescription:
From the the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature: Part detective story, part historical epic—a bold and brilliant novel that imagines a plague ravaging a fictional island in the Ottoman Empire. It is April 1900, in the Levant, on the imaginary island of Mingheria—the twenty-ninth state of the Ottoman Empire—located in the eastern Mediterranean between Crete and Cyprus. Half the population is Muslim, the other half are Orthodox Greeks, and tension is high between the two. When a plague arrives—brought either by Muslim pilgrims returning from the Mecca or by merchant vessels coming from Alex... continue
126.
Ninth Building by Zou Jingzhi EN
ChinaDescription:
Ninth Building is a fascinating collection of vignettes drawn from Zou Jingzhi's experience growing up during the Cultural Revolution, first as a boy in Beijing and then as a teenager exiled to the countryside. Zou poetically captures a side of the Cultural Revolution that is less talked about--the sheer tedium and waste of young life, as well as the gallows humor that accompanies such desperate situations. Jeremy Tiang's enthralling translation of this important work of fiction was awarded a PEN/Heim Grant.
127.
O amante by Marguerite Duras PT
VietnamDescription:
Prêmio Goncourt em 1984, com mais de 2 milhões e meio de exemplares vendidos apenas na França, Romance autobiográfico que acompanha a tumultuada história de amor entre uma jovem francesa e um rico comerciante chinês na Indochina pré-guerra. Com uma prosa intimista e certeira, Duras evoca a vida nas margens de Saigon nos últimos dias do império colonial da França e relembra não só sua experiência, mas também os relacionamentos que separaram sua família e que, prematuramente, gravaram em seu rosto as marcas implacáveis da maturidade.
128.
O caçador de pipas by Khaled Hosseini PT
Country: Asia / 
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
Publicado em mais de 70 países e com a marca de mais de 2 milhões de exemplares vendidos apenas no Brasil, o aclamado livro O caçador de pipas, romance de estreia de Khaled Hosseini, está de volta em nova edição. O romance narra a tocante história da amizade entre Amir e Hassan, dois meninos que vivem no Afeganistão da década de 1970. Durante um campeonato de pipas, Amir perde a chance de defender Hassan, num episódio que marca a vida dos dois amigos para sempre. Vinte anos mais tarde, quando Amir está estabelecido nos Estados Unidos, após ter abandonado um Afeganistão tomado pelos soviéticos,... continue
129.
IndonesiaDescription:
'Oeroeg was mijn vriend.' Zo begint het aangrijpende verhaal van de vriendschap tussen een Indonesische jongen en de zoon van een Nederlandse administrateur in het Nederlands-Indië van voor de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Geleidelijk groeien de twee jongens uit elkaar. Wanneer de Nederlandse jongen na een studie in Delft terugkeert in het Indië dat nog net geen Indonesië is geworden, blijkt hun verwijdering te zijn uitgegroeid tot een kloof. Oeroeg heeft gekozen: voor zijn eigen volk en tegen de Nederlanders, dus ook tegen zijn vriend. Geschokt vraagt die zich af of hij voorgo... continue
130.
One Left: A Novel by Kim Soom EN
Country: Asia / 
South Korea
South Korea
Description:
During the Pacific War, more than 200,000 Korean girls were forced into sexual servitude for Japanese soldiers. They lived in horrific conditions in “comfort stations” across Japanese-occupied territories. Barely 10 percent survived to return to Korea, where they lived as social outcasts. Since then, self-declared comfort women have come forward only to have their testimonies and calls for compensation largely denied by the Japanese government. Kim Soom tells the story of a woman who was kidnapped at the age of thirteen while gathering snails for her starving family. The horrors of her life as... continue