Popular Asian Historical Books
Find historical books written by authors from Asia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (104)
1.
A Daughter of Han; the Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman by Ida Pruitt, from the story told her by Ning Lao T'ai-t'ai EN
ChinaDescription:
2011 Reprint of 1945 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. In "A Daughter of Han" author Ida Pruitt presents the autobiography of a Chinese working woman. Through this story the reader gains insight into the China of the poor, of women, and of the provinces. The subject of the autobiography, Ning Lao Tai-Tai, is also interesting as she lived in the period, the late 19th to mid 20th century, during which China underwent its most dramatic changes. This is a genuine, warm-blooded, dramatic chronicle of a woman's life, of the life of one... continue
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Georgia4.
A MiG-15 to Freedom : Memoir of the Wartime North Korean Defector Who First Delivered the Secret Fighter Jet to the Americans in 1953 by No Kum-Sok, J. Roger Osterholm EN
Country: Asia / 
North Korea
North Korea
Description:
On September 21, 1953, U.S. airmen at Kimpo Air Base near Seoul, Korea, were startled to see landing a MiG-15, the most advanced Soviet-built fighter plane of the era, piloted by Senior Lieutenant No Kum-Sok, a 21-year-old North Korean Air Force officer. Once he landed, Lieutenant No found that his mother had escaped to the South two years earlier, and they were soon reunited. At his request, No came to the United States and became a U.S. citizen. His story provides a unique insight into how North Korea conducted the Korean War and how he came to the decision to leave his homeland.
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A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth EN
IndiaDescription:
Vikram Seth's novel is, at its core, a love story: Lata and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, are both trying to find -- through love or through exacting maternal appraisal -- a suitable boy for Lata to marry. Set in the early 1950s, in an India newly independent and struggling through a time of crisis, A Suitable Boy takes us into the richly imagined world of four large extended families and spins a compulsively readable tale of their lives and loves. A sweeping panoramic portrait of a complex, multiethnic society in flux, A Suitable Boy remains the story of ordinary people caught up in a web of l... continue
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A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini EN
Country: Asia / 
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, the #1 New York Times bestseller A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love. “Just as good, if not better, than Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling first book, The Kite Runner.”—Newsweek Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today. Born a generation apart a... continue
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A Um Fio da Morte: Memórias de um sobrevivente do Genocídio Armênio by Hampartzoum Chitjian PT
ArmeniaDescription:
Os sobreviventes de um genocídio são pessoas comuns que viveram situações extraordinárias e por esse fato deixaram de ser comuns. A terrível experiência deve ser usada como um exemplo que impeça que atrocidades como essa voltem a ocorrer, especialmente quando o culpado segue impune e negando seu crime. É por isso que, nesses casos, nada deve impedir a recuperação da memória, já que, como nos disse Todorov, esse direito de recordar que tem os sobreviventes das violências do Estado se transformaram num dever: o de testemunhar. Este livro é um testemunho, a narração do inferno padecido por Hampar... continue
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Armerian Golgotha by Grigoris Balakian EN
Description:
On April 24, 1915, Grigoris Balakian was arrested along with some 250 other leaders of Constantinople’s Armenian community. It was the beginning of the Ottoman Empire’s systematic attempt to eliminate the Armenian people from Turkey—a campaign that continued through World War I and the fall of the empire. Over the next four years, Balakian would bear witness to a seemingly endless caravan of blood, surviving to recount his miraculous escape and expose the atrocities that led to over a million deaths. Armenian Golgotha is Balakian’s devastating eyewitness account—a haunting reminder of the firs... continue
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Bangkok Wakes to Rain : A Novel by Pitchaya Sudbanthad EN
ThailandDescription:
"A house in the center of Bangkok becomes the point of confluence where lives are shaped by upheaval, memory, and the lure of home. Witness to two centuries' flux in one of the world's most restless cities, a house plays host to longings and losses past, present, and future. A nineteenth-century missionary doctor pines for the comforts of New England even as he finds the vibrant foreign chaos of Siam increasingly difficult to resist. A post-war society woman marries, mothers, and holds court, little suspecting the course of her future. A jazz pianist is summoned in the 1970s to conjure music t... continue
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Barefoot Gen : A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima by Keiji Nakazawa EN
JapanDescription:
GRAPHIC NOVELS: MANGA. Beautiful new hardcover edition of Barefoot Gen Volume One! Striking new design with special sturdy binding for institutional use. August 6, 2015 marked the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Today, the danger posed by nuclear weapons is as great as ever, yet few people survive who witnessed their horror. To mark the event, and honor Keiji Nakazawa's incredible work, Last Gasp created a special set of Barefoot Gen, volumes 1-4 for institutional use. Nakazawa's manga illustrates the true impact of nuclear weapons when used against a civilian... continue