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. (145)
101.
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar EN
IranDescription:
An extraordinarily powerful and evocative literary novel set in Iran in the period immediately after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Using the lyrical magic realism style of classical Persian storytelling, Azar draws the reader deep into the heart of a family caught in the maelstrom of post-revolutionary chaos and brutality that sweeps across an ancient land and its people. The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is really an embodiment of Iranian life in constant oscillation, struggle, and play between four opposing poles: life and death; politics and religion. The sorrow residing in the dept... continue
102.
The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee EN
ChinaDescription:
A traumatized college graduate, a lonely housewife, and a burned-out mother of three endure the challenges of their respective demons and families in the face of unexpected consequences within their American expat community in Hong Kong.
103.
The Four Books by Yan Lianke EN
Description:
In the ninety-ninth district of a sprawling reeducation compound, freethinking artists and academics are detained to strengthen their loyalty to Communist ideologies. They are forced to carry out grueling physical work and are encouraged to inform on each other for dissident behavior. The prize: winning the chance at freedom. They're overseen by preadolescent supervisor, the Child, who delights in reward systems and excessive punishments. When agricultural and industrial production quotas are raised to an unattainable level, the ninety-ninth district dissolves into lawlessness. And then, as in... continue
104.
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo EN
MalaysiaDescription:
Yangsze Choo s stunning debut, The Ghost Bride, is a startlingly original novel infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, and unexpected supernatural twists. Li Lan, the daughter of a respectable Chinese family in colonial Malaysia, hopes for a favorable marriage, but her father has lost his fortune, and she has few suitors. Instead, the wealthy Lim family urges her to become a ghost bride for their son, who has recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home fo... continue
105.
The Gift of Rain : A Novel by Tan Twan Eng EN
Description:
The recipient of extraordinary acclaim from critics and the bookselling community, Tan Twan Eng's debut novel casts a powerful spell and has garnered comparisons to celebrated wartime storytellers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene. Set during the tumult of World War II, on the lush Malayan island of Penang, The Gift of Rain tells a riveting and poignant tale about a young man caught in the tangle of wartime loyalties and deceits. In 1939, sixteen-year-old Philip Hutton-the half-Chinese, half-English youngest child of the head of one of Penang's great trading families-feels alienated from both... continue
106.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy EN
IndiaDescription:
Still, to say that it all began when Sophie Mol came to Ayemenem is only one way of looking at it . . . It could be argued that it actually began thousands of years ago. Long before the Marxists came. Before the British took Malabar, before the Dutch Ascendancy, before Vasco da Gama arrived, before the Zamorin’s conquest of Calicut. Before Christianity arrived in a boat and seeped into Kerala like tea from a teabag. That it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.
107.
The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing EN
Description:
This murder story features a Rhodesian farmer's wife and her houseboy.
108.
The Green Eyed Lama by Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, Jeffrey Lester Falt EN
MongoliaDescription:
"THE GREEN-EYED LAMA" IS THE BEST NOVEL EVER WRITTEN ABOUT MONGOLIA" (JACK WEATHERFORD)THE FIRST MONGOLIAN NOVEL EVER PUBLISHED IN THE WEST!AN AWARD-WINNING, DECADE-LONG BESTSELLER IN MONGOLIA.The year is 1938. The newly-installed communist government of Mongolia, under orders from Moscow, has launched a nation-wide purge. Before it ends, nearly a tenth of the country's population will be murdered.A young nomadic herds-woman named Sendmaa falls in love with Baasan, a talented and handsome Buddhist lama. Baasan resolves to leave the priesthood and marry Sendmaa, but her scheming neighbor persua... continue
109.
The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine EN
LebanonDescription:
“Here is absolute beauty. One of the finest novels I’ve read in years.” —Junot Diaz An astonishingly inventive, wonderfully exuberant novel that takes us from the shimmering dunes of ancient Egypt to the war-torn streets of twenty-first-century Lebanon. In 2003, Osama al-Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand vigil at his father’s deathbed. The city is a shell of the Beirut Osama remembers, but he and his friends and family take solace in the things that have always sustained them: gossip, laughter, and, above all, stories. Osama’s grandfather was a hakawati, or storyte... continue
110.
The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw EN
Description:
Joseph Conrad, W. Somerset Maugham, and Anthony Burgess have shaped our perceptions of Malaysia. In Tash Aw, we now have an authentic Malaysian voice that remaps this literary landscape. The Harmony Silk Factory traces the story of textile merchant Johnny Lim, a Chinese peasant living in British Malaya in the first half of the twentieth century. Johnny's factory is the most impressive structure in the region, and to the inhabitants of the Kinta Valley Johnny is a hero—a Communist who fought the Japanese when they invaded, ready to sacrifice his life for the welfare of his people. But to his so... continue