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 (1422)
771.

I Am a Cat by Sōseki Natsume EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
Though the total book is held together by the continuing theme of a nameless cat's observations on upper middle-class Japanese society of the Meiji era, its essence is in the humor and the sardonic truth of these various observations.

772.
What You Are Looking for Is in the Library

What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
For fans of The Midnight Library and Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this charming Japanese novel shows how the perfect book recommendation can change a reader's life. What are you looking for? This is the famous question routinely asked by Tokyo's most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. Like most librarians, Komachi has read every book lining her shelves--but she also has the unique ability to read the souls of her library guests. For anyone who walks through her door, Komachi can sense exactly what they're looking for in life and provide just the book recommendation they never knew they neede... continue
Genre

773.

Piercing by Ryu Murakami EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
"Mr. Murakami’s novels are filled with entertaining psychopaths." -- The New York Times A pulsating cult-favorite psycho-thriller, the basis of the major motion picture starring Christopher Abbott and Mia Wasikowska *One of Literary Hub's "Ten Works of Literary Horror You Should Read (Even if You Don't Think You Like Horror)"* Kawashima Masayuki is a successful graphic designer living in Tokyo with his loving wife, Yoko, and their baby girl. Outwardly, their lives are a picture of happiness and contentment, but every night while his wife sleeps Kawashima creeds from him bed and watches over th... continue

774.

Was vom Tage übrig blieb by Kazuo Ishiguro DE

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
Stevens dient als Butler in Darlington Hall. Er sorgt für einen tadellosen Haushalt und ist die Verschwiegenheit in Person: Niemals würde er auch nur ein Wort über die merkwürdigen Vorgänge im Herrenhaus verlieren. Er stellt sein Leben voll und ganz in den Dienst seines Herrn. Auch die vorsichtigen Annäherungsversuche von Miss Kenton, der Haushälterin, weist er brüsk zurück. Viele Jahre lang lebt er ergeben in seiner Welt, bis ihn eines Tages die Vergangenheit einholt. Das kritische Portrait einer von Klasse und Hierarchien geprägten Gesellschaft und eine bittersüße Liebesgeschichte, erzählt v... continue
Genre

775.

The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon by Sei Shōnagon EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon is a fascinating, detailed account of Japanese court life in the eleventh century. Written by a lady of the court at the height of Heian culture, this book enthralls with its lively gossip, witty observations, and subtle impressions. Lady Shonagon was an erstwhile rival of Lady Murasaki, whose novel, The Tale of Genji, fictionalized the elite world Lady Shonagon so eloquently relates. Featuring reflections on royal and religious ceremonies, nature, conversation, poetry, and many other subjects, The Pillow Book is an intimate look at the experiences and outlook o... continue

776.

La mort en été by Yukio Mishima FR

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
Dix nouvelles sont ici rassemblées. Elles reflètent tout à la fois la diversité des talents de Mishima - art du détail comme du développement thématique, art de la description comme de l'ellipse - et de la diversité des univers qu'il pénètre. Les hommes d'affaires et leurs épouses, les geishas, les gens du peuple, les acteurs du kabuki, le vieux prêtre du temple de Shiga et les soldats finissent par composer un Japon moderne en butte à ses traditions séculaires. Et tout est là : l'amour vénal, l'amour sublime et sacrilège ; la perversion des femmes et du monde de l'argent ; les superstitions e... continue

777.

Le pavillon d'or by Yukio Mishima FR

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
Sans rien changer à sa pose parfaitement protocolaire, la femme, tout à coup, ouvrit le col de son kimono. Mon oreille percevait presque le crissement de la soie frottée par l'envers raide de la ceinture. Deux seins de neige apparurent. Je retins mon souffle. Elle prit dans ses mains l'une des blanches et opulentes mamelles et je crus voir qu'elle se mettait à la pétrir. L'officier, toujours agenouillé devant sa compagne, tendit la tasse d'un noir profond. Sans prétendre, l'avoir, à la lettre, vu, j'eus du moins la sensation nette, comme si cela se fût déroulé sous mes yeux, du lait blanc et t... continue

778.

Penance by Kanae Minato EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
'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

779.

The Samurai by Shusaku Endo EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
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

780.

Spy x Family, Vol. 1 by Tatsuya Endo EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
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