Read Around Asia Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Asia.
Best books from Asia (1413)
41.
All the Light There Was : A Novel by Nancy Kricorian EN
ArmeniaDescription:
Early in The Sweetness, an inquisitive young girl asks her grandmother why she is carrying nothing but a jug of sliced lemons and water when they are forced by the Germans to evacuate their ghetto. "Something sour to remind me of the sweetness," she tells her, setting the theme for what they must remember to survive. Set during World War II, the novel is the parallel tale of two Jewish girls, cousins, living on separate continents, whose strikingly different lives ultimately converge. Brooklyn-born Mira Kane is the eighteen-year-old daughter of a well-to-do manufacturer of women s knitwear in ... continue
42.
Glaring Through Oblivion by Serj Tankian EN
Description:
From Serj Tankian—Grammy Award–winning lead singer of System Of A Down, songwriter, activist, and poet. Following his critically acclaimed debut poetry book, Cool Gardens, comes this new collection of stunning and original poems of darkness and light. Complemented by the transformative illustrations of the noted artist Roger Kupelian.
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44.
My Grandmother : A Memoir by Fethiye Çetin EN
Description:
An urgent, passionate memoir of the author's discovery of her Muslim grandmother's true Armenian Christian identity. When Fethiye Çetin was growing up in the small Turkish town of Maden, she knew her grandmother as a happy and universally respected Muslim housewife. It would be decades before her grandmother told her the truth: that she was by birth a Christian and an Armenian, that her name was not Seher but Heranush, that most of the men in her village had been slaughtered in 1915, that she, along with most of the women and children, had been sent on a death march. She had been saved (and to... continue
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46.
A Um Fio da Morte: Memórias de um sobrevivente do Genocídio Armênio by Hampartzoum Chitjian PT
Description:
Os sobreviventes de um genocídio são pessoas comuns que viveram situações extraordinárias e por esse fato deixaram de ser comuns. A terrível experiência deve ser usada como um exemplo que impeça que atrocidades como essa voltem a ocorrer, especialmente quando o culpado segue impune e negando seu crime. É por isso que, nesses casos, nada deve impedir a recuperação da memória, já que, como nos disse Todorov, esse direito de recordar que tem os sobreviventes das violências do Estado se transformaram num dever: o de testemunhar. Este livro é um testemunho, a narração do inferno padecido por Hampar... continue
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48.
Ali and Nino : A Love Story by Kurban Said EN
Country: Asia / 
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Description:
A reprint of a love story of two childhood friends, a Muslim warrior and a Christian girl, during the Russian Revolution. Set on the Caspian Sea, the novel symbolizes the clash of cultures between East and West. It was first published in German in 1937.
49.
The Orphan Sky by Ella Leya EN
Country: Asia / Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Description:
Leila, a young classical pianist, dreams of winning international competitions and bringing awards to her beloved country Azerbaijan. When she receives an assignment from her communist mentor to spy on a music shop suspected of traitorous Western influences, she is determined to prove her worth to the Party. When Leila meets Tahir, the painter who owns the music shop, his jazz recordings, abstract art, and subversive political opinions crack open the veneer of the world she's been living in. Now her comrades force her to make an impossible choice.
50.
Layla and Majnun by Ganjavi Nizami, Niẓāmī Ganjavī EN
Country: Asia / Azerbaijan
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.