Read Around Asia Challenge

Read at least one book by an author from each country in Asia.

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Best books from Asia (909)
871.

When I'm Gone, Look for Me in the East : A Novel by Quan Barry EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Country: Asia / Vietnam flag Vietnam
Description:
From the acclaimed author of We Ride Upon Sticks comes a luminous novel that moves across a windswept Mongolia, as estranged twin brothers make a journey of duty, conflict, and renewed understanding. Tasked with finding the reincarnation of a great lama—a spiritual teacher who may have been born anywhere in the vast Mongolian landscape—the young monk Chuluun sets out with his identical twin, Mun, who has rejected the monastic life they once shared. Their relationship will be tested on this journey through their homeland as each possesses the ability to hear the other’s thoughts. Proving once a... continue

872.

Paradise of the Blind : A Novel by Thu Huong Duong EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Vietnam flag Vietnam
Description:
Paradise of the Blind is an exquisite portrait of three Vietnamese women struggling to survive in a society where subservience to men is expected and Communist corruption crushes every dream. Through the eyes of Hang, a young woman in her twenties who has grown up amidst the slums and intermittent beauty of Hanoi, we come to know the tragedy of her family as land reform rips apart their village. When her uncle Chinh‘s political loyalties replace family devotion, Hang is torn between her mother‘s appalling self–sacrifice and the bitterness of her aunt who can avenge but not forgive. Only by fre... continue

873.

Butterfly Yellow by Thanhhà Lai EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Vietnam flag Vietnam
Description:
Winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction! Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo, Ibi Zoboi, and Erika L. Sanchez, this gorgeously written and deeply moving own voices novel is the YA debut from the award-winning author of Inside Out & Back Again. 4 starred reviews! In the final days of the Việt Nam War, Hằng takes her little brother, Linh, to the airport, determined to find a way to safety in America. In a split second, Linh is ripped from her arms--and Hằng is left behind in the war-torn country. Six years later, Hằng has made the brutal journey from Việt Nam and is now in Texa... continue

874.

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places : A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace by Le Ly Hayslip, Jay Wurts EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Vietnam flag Vietnam
Description:
Le Ly recounts her childhood in Ky La and her return to Vietnam in 1986 to search for the family she had left behind.

875.

Owner of a Lonely Heart : A Memoir by Beth Nguyen EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Vietnam flag Vietnam
Description:
From the award-winning author of Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, a powerful memoir of a mother-daughter relationship fragmented by war and resettlement. At the end of the Vietnam War, when Beth Nguyen was eight months old, she and her father, sister, grandmother, and uncles fled Saigon for America. Beth’s mother stayed—or was left—behind, and they did not meet again until Beth was nineteen. Over the course of her adult life, she and her mother have spent less than twenty-four hours together. Owner of a Lonely Heart is a memoir about parenthood, absence, and the condition of being a refugee: the stor... continue

876.

The Displaced : Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives by Viet Thanh Nguyen EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Vietnam flag Vietnam
Description:
"Brings together writers originally from Mexico, Bosnia, Iran, Afghanistan, Soviet Ukraine, Hungary, Chile, Ethiopia, and others to make their stories heard ... Their 17 contributions are as diverse as their own lives have been, and yet hold just as many themes in common"--Amazon.com.
Genre Memoir

877.

The Tale of Kieu : A Bilingual Edition of Nguyen Du's Truyen Kieu by Nguyen Du EN

Rating: 4 (4 votes)
Country: Asia / Vietnam flag Vietnam
Description:
Since its publication in the early nineteenth century, this long narrative poem has stood unchallenged as the supreme masterpiece of Vietnamese literature. Thông’s new and absorbingly readable translation (on pages facing the Vietnamese text) is illuminated by notes that give comparative passages from the Chinese novel on which the poem was based, details on Chinese allusions, and literal translations with background information explaining Vietnamese proverbs and folk sayings.

878.
Los Paraísos ciegos

Los Paraísos ciegos by Thu Huong Duong ES

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Vietnam flag Vietnam
Description:
"No mires nunca atrás, ni siquiera el tiempo de un relámpago. Ninguna felicidad podría resistirlo. Cualquier porvenir se deshilacharía". En tiempos de guerra es tal vez inevitable convertir en demonio al enemigo, y la sabiduría de esta novela consiste precisamente en despojarle de esa máscara demoníaca restableciendo su rostro humano. La historia de Huong describe los problemas de gente común y las contradicciones de la reforma política, pero su personalidad, sus alegrías y sufrimientos, sus terribles retos y el ca... continue

879.

La mensajera de cristal by Thị Hoài Phạm ES

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Vietnam flag Vietnam
Description:
Nacida en 1960, Pham Thi Hoài centra su narrativa en el Vietnam de hoy y, como otros escritores de su generación, no trata ya el tema de la guerra. Es sorprendente su capacidad para comprender el dolor que se esconde tras unas vidas míseras y triviales, y sus reivindicaciones como mujer y como vietnamita hicieron que sus obras resultaran en su país una escándalo inadmisible y tuvieran serios problemas con la censura. Sin embargo, lo más notable en esta autora es su estilo personalísimo, inconfundible, hecho a la vez de ferocidad y ternura, de po... continue