Read Around Asia Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Asia.
Best books from Asia (1413)
771.
JapanDescription:
'Kanae Minato is a brilliant storyteller' Emily St John Mandel, author of Station Eleven When a group of young girls are approached by a stranger, they cannot know that the encounter will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Hours later, Emily is dead. The surviving girls alone can identify the killer. But not one of them remembers his face... Driven mad by grief, the victim's mother demands the girls find the murderer or else atone for their crimes. If they do neither, she will have her revenge. She will make them pay... From the critically acclaimed author of Confessions, Penance is a dar... continue
772.
The Samurai by Shusaku Endo EN
Description:
Winner of the 1980 Noma Literary Prize - a darkly absorbing portrayal of the first ever Japanese voyage to cross the Pacific Ocean by the author of Silence In 17th-century Japan, a diplomatic mission sets sail for the West. Among those facing the combined perils of the sea and foreign courts are ambitious Spanish missionary Pedro Velasco, and Hasekura Rokuemon, a disregarded samurai determined to recover his family's standing. They travel to Mexico City, Rome and back - but Japan's new rulers are persecuting Christians, and if the men survive the journey, they may not survive their homecoming.... continue
773.
Spy x Family, Vol. 1 by Tatsuya Endo EN
Description:
An action-packed comedy about a fake family that includes a spy, an assassin and a telepath! Master spy Twilight is unparalleled when it comes to going undercover on dangerous missions for the betterment of the world. But when he receives the ultimate assignment—to get married and have a kid—he may finally be in over his head! Not one to depend on others, Twilight has his work cut out for him procuring both a wife and a child for his mission to infiltrate an elite private school. What he doesn’t know is that the wife he’s chosen is an assassin and the child he’s adopted is a telepath!... continue
774.
Description:
Novelist Hiromi Goto effortlessly blends wry, observational slice-of-life literary fiction with elements of the fantastic in the tender and gripping graphic novel Shadow Life, with haunting art from debut artist Ann Xu. When Kumiko’s well-meaning adult daughters place her in an assisted living home, the seventy-six-year-old widow gives it a try, but it’s not where she wants to be. She goes on the lam and finds a cozy bachelor apartment, keeping the location secret even while communicating online with her eldest daughter. Kumiko revels in the small, daily pleasures: decorating as she pleases, e... continue
775.
Formosan Vampire : From the Chronicles of Seth Ardelean the Cro-magnon Vampire by Amadeus Rockefeller EN
Description:
The Award Winning epic novel about the life of a 42,000 year old Cro-Magnon man who became a vampire king and ruled the most fearsome empire in history. In the shadowy depths of Taiwan's infamous Lyudao Island Prison, a figure shrouded in enigma and terror awaits his fate on death row. Known to a few as Seth, the formidable leader of the Dark Order, a clandestine legion of vampires, this entity's true identity remains a mystery. Why would a being of such power and darkness willingly surrender to mortal chains? It isn't until Eunice Wang, a tenacious young paralegal, steps into the cell of this... continue
776.
Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami EN
Description:
High-class call girls billed to Mastercard. A psychic 13-year-old dropout with a passion for Talking Heads. A hunky matinee idol doomed to play dentists and teachers. A one-armed beach-combing poet, an uptight hotel clerk and one very bemused narrator caught in the web of advanced capitalist mayhem. Combine this offbeat cast of characters with Murakami's idiosyncratic prose and out comes Dance Dance Dance. 'If Raymond Chandler had lived long enough to see Blade Runner, he might have written something like Dance Dance Dance' Observer 'Mr Murakami writes metaphysical Far Easterns with a Western ... continue
777.
Butter : A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki EN
Description:
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer, and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story There are two things that I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine. Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in the Tokyo Detention House convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, whom she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation's imagination, but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is until journalist Rika Machida writes a lett... continue
778.
Description:
Anzu acaba de modelar y hornear un delicado jarrón de arcilla. Está satisfecha, lo exhibirá en su próxima exposición, y, como su forma le recuerda la de una campanilla, lo llama Suzuran. Porque Anzu es una joven y reputada ceramista consagrada al mundo de la loza tradicional japonesa. Está divorciada, vive con su hijo preadolescente y, por más que le insistan sus amigas, no quiere volver a enamorarse. Su apacible vida cotidiana, en una ciudad junto al mar del Japón y al pie del monte Daisen, se ve alterada de pronto cuando su hermana mayo... continue
779.
The Night of Baba Yaga by Akira Otani EN
Description:
A fierce mixed-race fighter develops a powerful attachment to the yakuza princess she’s been forced to protect in this explosive queer thriller: Kill Bill meets The Handmaiden meets Thelma and Louise. Tokyo, 1979. Yoriko Shindo, a workhorse of a woman who has been an outcast her whole life, is kidnapped and dragged to the lair of the Naiki-kai, a branch of the yakuza. After she savagely fends off a throng of henchmen in an attempt to escape, Shindo is only permitted to live under one condition: that she will become the bodyguard and driver for Shoko Naiki, the obsessively sheltered daughter of... continue
780.
The Bookshop Woman by Nanako Hanada EN
Description:
'An irresistible treat for all bibliophiles' Waterstones THE BOOKSHOP WOMAN IS A LOVE STORY, A LOVE STORY ABOUT BOOKS Nanako Hanada's life has not just flatlined, it's hit rock bottom... Recently separated from her husband, she is living between 4-hour capsule hostels, pokey internet cafes and bookshop floors. Her work is going no better - sales at the eccentric Village Vanguard bookstore in Tokyo, which Nanako manages, are dwindling. As Nanako's life falls apart, reading books is the only thing keeping her alive. That's until Nanako joins an online meet-up site which offers 30 minutes with so... continue