Popular Asian Historical Books

Find historical books written by authors from Asia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (75)

21.

Kokoro by Natsume Soseki EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
The great Japanese author’s most famous novel, in its first new English translation in half a century No collection of Japanese literature is complete without Natsume Soseki's Kokoro, his most famous novel and the last he completed before his death. Published here in the first new translation in more than fifty years, Kokoro—meaning "heart"—is the story of a subtle and poignant friendship between two unnamed characters, a young man and an enigmatic elder whom he calls "Sensei." Haunted by tragic secrets that have cast a long shadow over his life, Sensei slowly opens up to his young disciple, c... continue

22.

La octava vida (para Brilka) / The Eighth Life (for Brilka) by Nino Haratischwili ES

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Georgia flag Georgia
Description:
Mágica como Cien años de soledad, intensa como La casa de los espíritus, monumental como Ana Karenina. «Nino Haratischwili es una de las voces más importantes de la literatura alemana.».-Die Zeit Georgia, 1917. Stasia, la hija de un exquisito fabricante de chocolate, sueña con ser bailarina en la Ópera de París pero, recién cumplidos los diecisiete años, se enamora de Simon Iachi, oficial de la Guardia Blanca. La revolución que estalla en octubre obliga a los enamorados a contraer precipitadamente matrimonio. Alemania, 2006. La biznieta de Stasia, Niza, lleva varios años viviendo en Berlín y h... continue

23.

Last Train to Istanbul by Ayşe Kulin EN

Rating: 4.5 (2 votes)
Country: Asia / Turkey flag Turkey
Description:
Ayse Kulin is a clever writer. She draws the reader into the story of the life and loves of a Turkish family in wartime, and by the time the reader realizes that she has also cranked up the tension with a rescue plot, it is too late to put the book down unfinished.

24.

Layla and Majnun by Ganjavi Nizami, Niẓāmī Ganjavī EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Country: Asia / Azerbaijan flag Azerbaijan
Description:
The text is a prose rendition of Nizami's 12th-century poetic masterpiece, in which he reshapes the legends of Majnun, the quintessential romantic fool, into a tale of the ideal lover. For the Sufis, Majnun represents the perfect devotee of the "religion of the heart," and the story is an allegory of the soul's longing for God. This is a beautiful production, and it includes a final chapter newly translated from the Persian by Omid Safi and Zia Inayat Khan.

25.

Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / China flag China
Description:
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER The extraordinary memoir of a peasant boy raised in rural Maoist China who was plucked from his village to study ballet and went on to become one of the greatest dancers of his generation. From a desperately poor village in northeast China, at age eleven, Li Cunxin was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates to be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America-and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of ... continue

26.

My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Turkey flag Turkey
Description:
** ORDER NIGHTS OF PLAGUE, THE NEW NOVEL FROM ORHAN PAMUK ** Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature Winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Award 'Wonderful' The Spectator 'Magnificent' Observer 'Sumptuous' New Yorker 'Unforgettable' Guardian My Name is Red is an unforgettable murder mystery, set amid the splendour of sixteenth century Istanbul, from the Nobel prizewinning author In the late 1590s, the Sultan secretly commissions a great book: a celebration of his life and his empire, to be illuminated by the best artists of the day - in the European manner. At a time of violent fundamental... continue

27.

Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) by Jose Rizal EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Country: Asia / Philippines flag Philippines
Description:
The great novel of the Philippines In more than a century since its appearance, José Rizal's Noli Me Tangere has become widely known as the great novel of the Philippines. A passionate love story set against the ugly political backdrop of repression, torture, and murder, "The Noli," as it is called in the Philippines, was the first major artistic manifestation of Asian resistance to European colonialism, and Rizal became a guiding conscience—and martyr—for the revolution that would subsequently rise up in the Spanish province. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher... continue

28.

Pachinko : The New York Times Bestseller by Min Jin Lee EN

Rating: 4 (37 votes)
Country: Asia / South Korea flag South Korea
Description:
* The million-copy bestseller* * National Book Award finalist * * An instant New York Times Bestseller and one of their 10 Best Books of 2017 * * Selected for Emma Watson's Our Shared Shelf book club * 'This is a captivating book... Min Jin Lee's novel takes us through four generations and each character's search for identity and success. It's a powerful story about resilience and compassion' BARACK OBAMA. Yeongdo, Korea, 1911. Teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a fisherman, falls for a wealthy yakuza. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant – and that her lover i... continue

29.

Pearling in the Arabian Gulf : A Kuwaiti Memoir by Sayf Marzūq Shamlān EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Kuwait flag Kuwait
Description:
Born in Kuwait in 1926, into a distinguished Kuwaiti family of pearl merchants and seafarers, Saif Marzooq al- Shamlan describes the final generation of the pearling industry from 1900 to the slump of the 1930s, when the development of the Japanese cultured pearl led to economic disaster for the people of the Gulf.

30.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi EN

Rating: 4 (45 votes)
Country: Asia / Iran flag Iran
Description:
BEST SELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. “A wholly original achievement.... Satrapi evokes herself and her schoolmates coming of age in a world of protests and disappearances.... A stark, shocking impact.” —The New York Times: "The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years" In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the coming-of-age story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regim... continue