Popular Asian Memoir Books
Find memoir books written by authors from Asia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (126)
61.
Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin EN
ChinaDescription:
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER The extraordinary memoir of a peasant boy raised in rural Maoist China who was plucked from his village to study ballet and went on to become one of the greatest dancers of his generation. From a desperately poor village in northeast China, at age eleven, Li Cunxin was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates to be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America-and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of ... continue
62.
Moi Nojoud, 10 ans, divorcée by Nujood Ali FR
YemenDescription:
Mariée de force à un homme trois fois plus âgé qu'elle, Nojoud est sexuellement abusée. Elle a 10 ans. Ayant demandé en vain le divorce trois mois après ses noces, elle se réfugie au tribunal. Grâce à la mobilisation d'une avocate, des ONG et de la presse locale, elle parvient au divorce. Ce fait est exceptionnel au Yémen où près de la moitié des filles sont mariées en dessous de l'âge légal.
63.
MongoliaDescription:
Exteremely interesting'emotionally engaging (Stuart Kelly). Uuganaa is a Mongol living in Britain, far from the world she grew up in: as a nomadic herder she lived in a yurt, eating marmot meat, distilling vodka from goat's yoghurt and learning about Comrade Lenin. When her new-born son Billy is diagnosed with DownOCOs Syndrome, she finds herself facing bigotry and taboo as well as heartbreak. In this powerful memoir, Uuganaa skilfully interweaves the extraordinary story of her own childhood in Mongolia with the sadly short life of Billy, who becomes a symbol of union and disunion, cultures an... continue
64.
Monsoon Mansion : A Memoir by Cinelle Barnes EN
Country: Asia / 
Philippines
Philippines
Description:
Told with a lyrical, almost-dreamlike voice as intoxicating as the moonflowers and orchids that inhabit this world, Monsoon Mansion is a harrowing yet triumphant coming-of-age memoir exploring the dark, troubled waters of a family's rise and fall from grace in the Philippines. It would take a young warrior to survive it. Cinelle Barnes was barely three years old when her family moved into Mansion Royale, a stately ten-bedroom home in the Philippines. Filled with her mother's opulent social aspirations and the gloriously excessive evidence of her father's self-made success, it was a girl's stor... continue
65.
Murakami T : The T-Shirts I Love by Haruki Murakami EN
JapanDescription:
The international literary icon opens his eclectic closet: Here are photographs of Murakami’s extensive and personal T-shirt collection, accompanied by essays that reveal a side of the writer rarely seen by the public. Many of Haruki Murakami's fans know about his massive vinyl record collection (10,000 albums!) and his obsession with running, but few have heard about a more intimate passion: his T-shirt collecting. In Murakami T, the famously reclusive novelist shows us his T-shirts—from concert shirts to never-worn whiskey-themed Ts, and from beloved bookstore swag to the shirt that inspired... continue
66.
My Feudal Lord by Tehmina Durrani, William Hoffer, Marilyn Mona Hoffer EN
PakistanDescription:
Born into one of Pakistan's most influential families, Tehmina Durrani was raised in the privileged milieu of Lahore high society. She was expected to marry a wealthy Muslim, bear him children and lead a sheltered life of leisure. This is the story of Tehmina's rebellion from an unhappy marriage.
67.
My Forbidden Face : Growing Up Under the Taliban : a Young Woman's Story by Latifa, Chékéba Hachemi EN
Country: Asia / 
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
Born into a middle-class Afghan family in Kabul in 1980, Latifa had a conventional childhood. Then, Taliban soldiers seized power in Kabul. And from that moment, Latifa, just sixteen, became a prisoner in her own home. The simplest and most basic freedoms were forbidden. She was forced to put on a chadri, the state-mandated uniform that covered her entire body. Disbelief at having to hide herself was soon replaced by fear, the fear of being whipped or stoned like women she'd seen. My Forbidden Face provides a moving and highly personal account of life under the Taliban regime. With painful hon... continue
68.
My Grandmother : A Memoir by Fethiye Çetin EN
ArmeniaDescription:
An urgent, passionate memoir of the author's discovery of her Muslim grandmother's true Armenian Christian identity. When Fethiye Çetin was growing up in the small Turkish town of Maden, she knew her grandmother as a happy and universally respected Muslim housewife. It would be decades before her grandmother told her the truth: that she was by birth a Christian and an Armenian, that her name was not Seher but Heranush, that most of the men in her village had been slaughtered in 1915, that she, along with most of the women and children, had been sent on a death march. She had been saved (and to... continue
69.
My Life as a Traitor by Zarah Ghahramani EN
IranDescription:
It was part youthful zeal and part teen crush that led Zarah Ghahramani to join a student protest movement. But dabbling in student politics was to lead to disaster when one day she was bundled into a car and taken to Tehran's most notorious prison: Evin. Far from her comfortable middle-class home, Zarah had to find refuge from her ruthless interrogators in a windowless concrete cell. Day after day she was humiliated and viciously beaten until all she wanted was simply to die, her spirit broken. In My Life as a Traitor, Zarah tells the story of her horrifying ordeal and her eventual release, a... continue
70.
My Past Is a Foreign Country : A Muslim Feminist Finds Herself by Zeba Talkhani EN
Country: Asia / 
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
Description:
'Brilliant and brutally honest, this memoir ropes you in with every page. The intimacy that Zeba evokes will remind you of your own sister opening her heart to you.' Meena Kandasamy, author of When I Hit You, shortlisted for The Women's Prize 28-year-old Zeba Talkhani charts her experiences growing up in Saudi Arabia amid patriarchal customs reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale, and her journey to find freedom in India, Germany and the UK. Talkhani offers a fresh perspective on living as an outsider and examines her relationship with her mother and the challenges she faced when she experienced h... continue