Read Around Asia Challenge
Most Popular Book
- Part of the "Read Around The World Challenge"
- Join book lovers like you from all over the world who want to read at least one book written by an author from each of the 50 countries in Asia.
- Track your progress reading around the world on a world map which is automatically created for you
- Leave your reading comfort zone and expand your reading horizon.
- Make 2025 the year you:
- will read more books from Asia,
- discover new Asian writers,
- learn more about Asia.
- Register to join the "Read Around Asia Challenge"
50 countries in Asia means 50 books to read for this challenge.
Reading progress by all challenge participants
Read Around Asia Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Asia.
Best books from Asia (1401)
1.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini EN
Country: Asia / 
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
Soon to be a major Broadway stage production. Coming July 2022! The #1 New York Times bestselling novel beloved by millions of readers the world over. “A vivid and engaging story that reminds us how long his people [of Afghanistan] have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence—forces that continue to threaten them even today." –New York Times Book Review The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, caught in the tragic sweep of history, The Kite Runner transports readers to Afghanistan at a tense and ... continue
2.
The Pearl that Broke Its Shell : A Novel by Nadia Hashimi EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
Afghan-American Nadia Hashimi's literary debut novel is a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See. In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school, and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age. As a son, she can attend school, go to ... continue
3.
And the Mountains Echoed : A Novel by Khaled Hosseini EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
An unforgettable novel about finding a lost piece of yourself in someone else. Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those clo... continue
4.
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
5.
Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
When the Soviet army arrives in Afghanistan, the elderly Dastaguir witnesses the destruction of his village. Haunting in its spareness, "Earth and Ashes" is a tale of devastating loss, but also of human perseverance in the face of madness and war.
6.
Dancing in the mosque by Homeira Qaderi EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
An exquisite and inspiring memoir about one mother's unimaginable choice in the face of oppression and abuse in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
7.
The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
In Persian folklore, Syngue Sabour is the name of a magical black stone, a patience stone, which absorbs the plight of those who confide in it. It is believed that the day it explodes, after having received too much hardship and pain, will be the day of the Apocalypse. But here, the Syngue Sabour is not a stone but rather a man lying brain-dead with a bullet lodged in his neck. His wife is with him, sitting by his side. But she resents him for having sacrificed her to the war, for never being able to resist the call to arms, for wanting to be a hero, and in the end, after all was said and done... continue
8.
Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
A deeply moving, gorgeously illustrated short story for people of all ages from the international bestselling author of The Kite Runner, brought to life by Dan Williams's beautiful illustrations'The book may be brief, but it is beautiful, poetic - a distillation of his strengths' Sunday Times On a moonlit beach a father cradles his sleeping son as they wait for dawn to break and a boat to arrive. He speaks to his boy of the long summers of his childhood, recalling his grandfather's house in Syria, the stirring of olive trees in the breeze, the bleating of his grandmother's goat, the clanking o... continue
9.
Games Without Rules by Tamim Ansary EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
Today, most Westerners still see the war in Afghanistan as a contest between democracy and Islamist fanaticism. That war is real; but it sits atop an older struggle, between Kabul and the countryside, between order and chaos, between a modernist impulse to join the world and the pull of an older Afghanistan: a tribal universe of village republics permeated by Islam. Now, Tamim Ansary draws on his Afghan background, Muslim roots, and Western and Afghan sources to explain history from the inside out, and to illuminate the long, internal struggle that the outside world has never fully understood.... continue
10.
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
FINALIST FOR THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION NAMED ONE OF THE NEW YORKER'S BEST BOOKS OF 2022 "An endlessly inventive and moving collection from a thrilling and capacious young talent." —Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins. A luminous new collection of stories from a young writer who “has brought his culture’s rich history, mythology, and lyricism to American letters.” —Sandra Cisneros Pen/Hemingway finalist Jamil Jan Kochai breathes life into his contemporary Afghan characters, moving between modern-day Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora in America. In these arresting stories ve... continue