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)
71.
IndiaDescription:
"It was time for that tiny little dream that lay hidden all these years to gradually acquire a form and shape. The thought of making it come true was an audacious one. She dared not do it. On the other hand she dared a lot after all, she was Fateema Lokhandwala, a courageous young woman... " "As pots and words banged against each other, her two-wheeler would whizz past everything, leaving it all behind. Main road, Mashallah! Current-like, the city would course through her body... At such times, Fateema lived in the present, and in the future. " Thus begins Ila Arab Mehta s beautiful and skillf... continue
72.
Funny Boy : A Novel by Shyam Selvadurai EN
Sri LankaDescription:
A coming of age story about Arjun Chelvaratnam, who struggles with his homosexuality, entering into an affair with a schoolmate and breaking not only sexual taboos, but also social structures that separate the Tamil and Sinhalese.
73.
Golden Age : A Novel by Wang Xiaobo EN
ChinaDescription:
"At the time Wang was writing, novels about the Cultural Revolution tended to be fairly conventional tales of how good people suffered nobly during this decade of madness. The system itself was rarely called into question. Wang’s book was radically different . . . The idea of how to stand up to power underlies Golden Age." —Ian Johnson, The New York Times Book Review Like Gary Shteyngart or Michel Houellebecq, Wang Xiaobo is a Chinese literary icon whose satire forces us to reconsider the ironies of history. “Apparently, there was a rumour that Chen Qingyang and I were having an affair. She wa... continue
74.
Grass by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim EN
Country: Asia / 
South Korea
South Korea
Description:
This true story of a Korean comfort woman documents how the atrocity of war devastates women’s lives Grass is a powerful antiwar graphic novel, telling the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War—a disputed chapter in twentieth-century Asian history. Beginning in Lee’s childhood, Grass shows the lead-up to the war from a child’s vulnerable perspective, detailing how one person experienced the Japanese occupation and the widespread suffering it entailed for ordinary Koreans. Keum Suk Gendry-Kim em... continue
75.
Gun Island : A spellbinding, globe-trotting novel by the bestselling author of the Ibis trilogy by Amitav Ghosh EN
Description:
Bundook. Gun. A common word, but one which turns Deen Datta's world upside down. A dealer of rare books, Deen is used to a quiet life spent indoors, but as his once-solid beliefs begin to shift, he is forced to set out on an extraordinary journey; one that takes him from India to Los Angeles and Venice via a tangled route through the memories and experiences of those he meets along the way. There is Piya, a fellow Bengali-American who sets his journey in motion; Tipu, an entrepreneurial young man who opens Deen's eyes to the realities of growing up in today's world; Rafi, with his desperate at... continue
76.
Hard by a Great Forest : A Novel by Leo Vardiashvili EN
GeorgiaDescription:
"This novel annihilated me. I gasped, laughed, and wept my way through it... Left my heart bruised and battered and aching for more." —Khaled Hosseini, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kite Runner “Blows open the heart of the past. It's a mystery, it's a picaresque, it's a comedy, and it's an authentic song of belonging and unbelonging. Tender and raw and funny.” —Colum McCann, National Book Award winning author of Let the Great World Spin "Propulsive, funny, and profound."—Elif Batuman, Pulitzer Prize finalist and bestselling author of The Idiot “Astonishingly crafted with history,... continue
77.
Hard Like Water by Yan Lianke EN
Description:
“Yan is one of those rare geniuses who finds in the peculiar absurdities of his own culture the absurdities that infect all cultures.” —The Washington Post From the Kafka Prize winner and two-time Booker Prize finalist, this is a gripping and bitingly satirical story of ambition and betrayal, following two young communist revolutionaries whose forbidden love sets them apart from their traditionally minded village as the Cultural Revolution sweeps China. Gao Aijun is a son of the soil of Henan’s Balou Mountains, and after his Army service, he is on his way back to his ancestral village, feeling... continue
78.
Het huis van de moskee by Kader Abdolah NL
IranDescription:
De wederwaardigheden van de grote familie van een Iraanse tapijthandelaar, die het huis van de moskee bewoont, tegen de achtergrond van de islamitische revolutie in 1979.
79.
Het schaarse licht by Nino Haratischwili NL
Description:
‘Hier staan we, het trio dat is ontsnapt, dat de sprong naar het heden heeft gemaakt, wij, de overlevenden die proberen verder te leven in plaats van al diegenen wie het niet was vergund en die op deze foto’s voor altijd jong zullen blijven.’
Na de langverwachte onafhankelijkheid breekt er chaos uit in de jonge Georgische staat. Tussen de vochtige muren en de betoverende houten balkons in de binnenstad van Tbilisi sluiten eind jaren tachtig van de vorige eeuw vier meisjes vriendschap: de naar vrijheid hunkerende Dina, het intelligente buitenbeentje Ira, de romantische Nene... continue
80.
IndonesiaDescription:
"A wonderful exercise in humanism . . . [by] a prodigious and impressive storyteller".—Jakarta Globe An epic saga of "families and friends entangled in the cruel snare of history" (Time magazine), Home combines political repression and exile with a spicy mixture of love, family, and food, alternating between Paris and Jakarta in the time between Suharto's 1965 rise to power and downfall in 1998, further illuminating Indonesia's tragic twentieth-century history popularized by the Oscar-nominated documentary The Act of Killing. Leila S. Chudori is Indonesia's most prominent female journalist. Ho... continue