Popular Asian Memoir Books
Find memoir books written by authors from Asia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (126)
81.
Reflections from Prison: 20 Years and 20 Days by Shin Young-bok EN
Country: Asia / 
South Korea
South Korea
Description:
Reflections from Prison is the collected letters and essays written by renowned Korean thinker Shin Young-Bok during his 20 years and 20 days as a political prisoner on a life tariff under Korea's military dictatorships. The letters range from postcards, to tiny characters squeezed onto his daily ration of two sheets of toilet paper. The writings themselves are not overtly political since all the letters went through censorships Yet he does not hide the harshness of prison life at the rock bottom of society. They provide a window onto his personal suffering during imprisonment a life sentence,... continue
82.
Revolution in World Missions : One Man's Journey to Change a Generation by K. P. Yohannan EN
IndiaDescription:
Step into the story of missionary statesman K.P. Yohannan and experience the world through his eyes. You will hang on every word - from the villages of India to the shores of Europe and North America. Watch out: His passion is contagious!
83.
Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje EN
Sri LankaDescription:
In the late 1970s Ondaatje returned to his native island of Sri Lanka. As he records his journey through the drug-like heat and intoxicating fragrances of that "pendant off the ear of India, " Ondaatje simultaneously retraces the baroque mythology of his Dutch-Ceylonese family. An inspired travel narrative and family memoir by an exceptional writer.
84.
Samurai! by Saburo Sakai, Martin Caidin, Fred Saito EN
JapanDescription:
Saburo Sakai was Japan's greatest fighter pilot to survive World War II. A veteran of more than two hundred dogfights, Sakai reportedly shot down sixty-four Allied planes, but he is best known for flying his crippled Zero nearly 600 miles to safety while partially paralyzed and nearly blind from multiple wounds.
85.
Sigh, Gone : A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In by Phuc Tran EN
VietnamDescription:
For anyone who has ever felt like they don't belong, Sigh, Gone shares an irreverent, funny, and moving tale of displacement and assimilation woven together with poignant themes from beloved works of classic literature. In 1975, during the fall of Saigon, Phuc Tran immigrates to America along with his family. By sheer chance they land in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a small town where the Trans struggle to assimilate into their new life. In this coming-of-age memoir told through the themes of great books such as The Metamorphosis, The Scarlet Letter, The Iliad, and more, Tran navigates the push and... continue
86.
Stars Between the Sun and Moon : One Woman's Life in North Korea and Escape to Freedom by Lucia Jang, Susan McClelland EN
Country: Asia / 
North Korea
North Korea
Description:
An extraordinary memoir by a North Korean woman who defied the government to keep her family alive.
87.
Strangers on a Pier : Portrait of a Family by Tash Aw EN
MalaysiaDescription:
'So wise and so well done. It made me wish it were much longer than it is' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie From the award-winning author of Five Star Billionaire and We, The Survivors comes a whirlwind personal history of modern Asia, as told through his Malaysian and Chinese heritage.
88.
Tastes Like War : A Memoir by Grace M. Cho EN
Country: Asia / South Korea
South Korea
Description:
A powerful account of a Korean American daughter's exploration of food and family history to understand her mother's schizophrenia.
89.
The Aquariums of Pyongyang : Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Chol-hwan Kang, Pierre Rigoulot EN
Country: Asia / North Korea
North Korea
Description:
Part horror story, part historical document, part memoir, part political tract, one man's suffering gives eyewitness proof to an ongoing sorrowful chapter of modern history.
90.
The Bells of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai EN
Description:
Among the wounded on the day they dropped the bomb on Nagasaki was a young doctor who, though sick himself cared for the sick and dying. Written when he too lay dying of leukemia, The Bells of Nagasaki is the extraordinary account of his experience. It is deeply moving and human story. Among the wounded on the day they dropped the bomb on Nagasaki was a young doctor who, though sick himself cared for the sick and dying. Written when he too lay dying of leukemia, The Bells of Nagasaki is the extraordinary account of his experience. It is deeply moving and human story.