Popular Asian Memoir Books
Find memoir books written by authors from Asia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (126)
1.
1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows : A Memoir by Ai Weiwei EN
ChinaDescription:
The “intimate and expansive” (Time) memoir of “one of the most important artists working in the world today” (Financial Times), telling a remarkable history of China over the last hundred years while also illuminating his artistic process “Poignant . . . An illuminating through-line emerges in the many parallels Ai traces between his life and his father’s.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, BookPage, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews Once a close associate of Mao Zedong and the nation’s most celebrated poet, Ai Weiwei’s father, Ai Qing, was brande... continue
2.
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
Description:
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
3.
A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley EN
IndiaDescription:
"When Saroo Brierley used Google Earth to find his long-lost home town half a world away, he made global headlines. Saroo had become lost on a train in India at the age of five. Not knowing the name of his family or where he was from, he survived for weeks on the streets of Kolkata, before being taken into an orphanage and adopted by a couple in Australia. Despite being happy in his new family, Saroo always wondered about his origins. He spent hours staring at the map of India on his bedroom wall. When he was a young man the advent of Google Earth led him to pour over satellite images of the c... continue
4.
A MiG-15 to Freedom : Memoir of the Wartime North Korean Defector Who First Delivered the Secret Fighter Jet to the Americans in 1953 by No Kum-Sok, J. Roger Osterholm EN
Country: Asia / 
North Korea
North Korea
Description:
On September 21, 1953, U.S. airmen at Kimpo Air Base near Seoul, Korea, were startled to see landing a MiG-15, the most advanced Soviet-built fighter plane of the era, piloted by Senior Lieutenant No Kum-Sok, a 21-year-old North Korean Air Force officer. Once he landed, Lieutenant No found that his mother had escaped to the South two years earlier, and they were soon reunited. At his request, No came to the United States and became a U.S. citizen. His story provides a unique insight into how North Korea conducted the Korean War and how he came to the decision to leave his homeland.
5.
A River in Darkness : One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa EN
JapanDescription:
Previously published in Japan in 2000. Translated from Japanese by Risa Kobayashi and Martin Brown. First published in English by AmazonCrossing in 2017.
6.
A Thousand Miles to Freedom : My Escape from North Korea by Ŭn-ju Kim, Eunsun Kim, Sébastien Falletti EN
Country: Asia / North Korea
North Korea
Description:
A woman who escaped North Korea as a girl with her mother relates the harrowing story of her nine-year journey to freedom.
7.
Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep by Siba Shakib EN
IranDescription:
One woman’s harrowing story about life under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Shirin-Gol was just a young girl when her village was levelled by the Russians in 1979. When the men in her family joined the resistance, she fled with the other women and children to Kabul, and so began a life of day-to-day struggle in her war-torn country. A life that included a Pakistani refugee camp, a forced marriage to pay off her brother’s gambling debts, selling her body and begging for money to feed her growing family, an attempted suicide and an unsuccessful attempt to leave Afghanistan for Iran after the... continue
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9.
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
10.
At 30, I Realized I Had No Gender : Life Lessons from a 50-Year-Old After Two Decades of Self-Discovery by Arai Shou EN
Description:
At age 30, Shou Arai came to a realization; they had no gender. Now they were faced with a question they'd never really considered: how to age in a society where everything is so strongly segregated between two genders? This autobiographical manga explores Japanese culture surrounding gender, transgender issues, and the day to day obstacles faced by gender minorities and members of the LGBTQIA+ community with a lighthearted, comedic attitude.