Read Around Asia Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Asia.
Best books from Asia (1246)
1201.
Owner of a Lonely Heart : A Memoir by Beth Nguyen EN
VietnamDescription:
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
1202.
The Displaced : Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives by Viet Thanh Nguyen EN
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.
1203.
The Tale of Kieu : A Bilingual Edition of Nguyen Du's Truyen Kieu by Nguyen Du EN
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.
1204.
Los Paraísos ciegos by Thu Huong Duong ES
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
1205.
La mensajera de cristal by Thị Hoài Phạm ES
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
1206.
1207.
Fire Road : The Napalm Girl's Journey Through the Horrors of War to Faith, Forgiveness, and Peace by Kim Phuc Phan Thi, Kim Phúc EN
Description:
Get out! Run! We must leave this place! They are going to destroy this whole place! Go, children, run first! Go now! These were the final shouts nine year-old Kim Phuc heard before her world dissolved into flames--before napalm bombs fell from the sky, burning away her clothing and searing deep into her skin. It's a moment forever captured, an iconic image that has come to define the horror and violence of the Vietnam War. Kim was left for dead in a morgue; no one expected her to survive the attack. Napalm meant fire, and fire meant death. Against all odds, Kim lived--but her journey toward he... continue
1208.
Sigh, Gone : A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In by Phuc Tran EN
Description:
For anyone who has ever felt like they don't belong, Sigh, Gone shares an irreverent, funny, and moving tale of displacement and assimilation woven together with poignant themes from beloved works of classic literature. In 1975, during the fall of Saigon, Phuc Tran immigrates to America along with his family. By sheer chance they land in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a small town where the Trans struggle to assimilate into their new life. In this coming-of-age memoir told through the themes of great books such as The Metamorphosis, The Scarlet Letter, The Iliad, and more, Tran navigates the push and... continue
1209.
The Crystal Messenger by Thị Hoài Phạm EN
Description:
This award winning book has been described as the 'renaissance of Vietnamese literature'. Written by a young woman in her twenties at the end of an era when Vietnam closed itself off from the world, it is widely regarded as one of the most important works of fiction ever to come out of that country. Ostensibly, The Crystal Messenger is a magical and moving story of two sisters' journeys to emotional and sexual maturity. But it is also a powerful allegory about the fate of North and South Vietnam, the struggle with reunification after the war, and the effect of consumerism and westernisation on... continue
1210.
The Lover by Marguerite Duras EN
Description:
Set in prewar Indochina, this is the haunting tale of a tumultuous affair between an adolescent French girl and her Chinese lover. The author evokes life on the margins of Saigon in the waning days of France's colonial empire, and its representation in the passionate relationship between two unforgettable outcasts.