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. (232)
Iran42.
Cigarette Girl by Ratih Kumala EN
IndonesiaDescription:
Pak Raja is gravely ill. On his deathbed, he calls the name of a woman who isn’t his wife: Jeng Yah. His three sons, the heirs to the Djagad Raja Clove Cigarette dynasty, are thrown into an uproar and their mother is consumed by jealousy. Racing against time, Lebas, Karim and Tegar go to the most remote corners of Java to fi nd Jeng Yah before death comes to claim their father. The journey takes them on a winding path as they uncover business and family secrets. Lebas, Karim, and Tegar discover the origins of Djagad Raja Clove Cigarettes and how it came to be the number one kretek in Indonesia... continue
43.
Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje EN
Sri LankaDescription:
Bringing to life the fabulous, colorful panorama of New Orleans in the first flush of the jazz era, this book tells the story of Buddy Bolden, the first of the great trumpet players--some say the originator of jazz--who was, in any case, the genius, the guiding spirit, and the king of that time and place. In this fictionalized meditation, Bolden, an unrecorded father of Jazz, remains throughout a tantalizingly ungraspable phantom, the central mysteries of his life, his art, and his madness remaining felt but never quite pinned down. Ondaatje's prose is at times startlingly lyrical, and as he c... continue
44.
Das Achte Leben für Brilka by Nino Harataschwili DE
GeorgiaDescription:
Georgien, 1900: Mit der Geburt Stasias, Tochter eines angesehenen Schokoladenfabrikanten, beginnt dieses berauschende Epos über sechs Generationen. Stasia wächst in der wohlhabenden Oberschicht auf und heiratet jung den Weißgardisten Simon Jaschi, der am Vorabend der Oktoberrevolution nach Petrograd versetzt wird, weit weg von seiner Frau. Als Stalin an die Macht kommt, sucht Stasia mit ihren beiden Kindern Kitty und Kostja in Tbilissi Schutz bei ihrer Schwester Christine, die bekannt ist für ihre atemberaubende Schönheit. Doch als der Geheimdienstler Lawrenti Beria auf sie aufmerksam wird, ha... continue
45.
Das Gleichgewicht der Welt by Rohinton Mistry DE
IndiaDescription:
Man schreibt das Jahr 1975. Der Ort: Bombay. Hier treffen vier Menschen aufeinander, deren Schicksale im Mittelpunkt des Romans stehen. Dina Dalal, eine Frau Anfang Vierzig und seit fast zwanzig Jahren verwitwet; Maneck Kohlah, ein junger Student aus dem Gebiet des Himalajas; Ishvar Darji, ein unglaublicher Optimist und sein widerspenstiger junger Neffe Omprakash - zwei Schneider, die vor den unerträglichen Verhältnissen auf dem Land in die Stadt geflohen sind. Diese vier lernen sich kennen, achten und lieben und werden doch vom Schicksal wieder auseinandergerissen.
46.
Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan EN
MalaysiaDescription:
A captivating debut fantasy inspired by the legend of the Chinese moon goddess, Chang'e , in which a young woman's quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm and sets her on a dangerous path--where choices come with deadly consequences, and she risks losing more than her heart. Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the powerful Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin's magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her h... continue
47.
Turkey48.
De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage EN
LebanonDescription:
In this explosive, captivating portrait of life in a war zone, two young men must choose their futures: to stay in the war-torn Beirut and consolidate power through crime, or to go into exile abroad, alienated from the only existence they have known.
49.
Dearest Intimate by Suchen Christine Lim EN
SingaporeDescription:
From an award-winning Singaporean novelist comes a multi-layered tale about love, sisterhood, spousal abuse, and Cantonese opera in the lives of three generations of women--all set against the dramatic sweep of Singapore's development The famous cross-dressing Cantonese opera singer Chan Kam Foong passes away, leaving her secret journal to her granddaughter, Xiu Yin, an archival officer at the Singapore National Archives. Xiu Yin reads through the journal that chronicles her grandmother's relationship with Dearest Intimate in their village in China to their respective escapes to the Nanyang be... continue
50.
Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa EN
SyriaDescription:
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE A dogged, absurd quest through the nightmare of the Syrian civil war Khaled Khalifa’s Death Is Hard Work is the new novel from the greatest chronicler of Syria’s ongoing and catastrophic civil war: a tale of three ordinary people facing down the stuff of nightmares armed with little more than simple determination. Abdel Latif, an old man from the Aleppo region, dies peacefully in a hospital bed in Damascus. His final wish, conveyed to his youngest son, Bolbol, is to be buried in the family plot in their ancestral village of Anabiya... continue