Read Around Asia Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Asia.
Best books from Asia (975)
871.
Bangkok Wakes to Rain : A Novel by Pitchaya Sudbanthad EN
ThailandDescription:
"A house in the center of Bangkok becomes the point of confluence where lives are shaped by upheaval, memory, and the lure of home. Witness to two centuries' flux in one of the world's most restless cities, a house plays host to longings and losses past, present, and future. A nineteenth-century missionary doctor pines for the comforts of New England even as he finds the vibrant foreign chaos of Siam increasingly difficult to resist. A post-war society woman marries, mothers, and holds court, little suspecting the course of her future. A jazz pianist is summoned in the 1970s to conjure music t... continue
872.
Description:
"Explores the quality of human resilience through the adventures of Kampol Changsamran, a young boy left behind by his parents after their break-up"--
874.
The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth by Wīraphō̜n Nitipraphā EN
Description:
On the day Chareeya is born, her mother discovers her father having an affair with a traditional Thai dancer. From then on, Chareeya's life is fated to carry the weight of her parents' disappointments. She and her sister grow up in a lush riverside town near the Thai capital, Bangkok, captivated by trashy romance novels, classical music and games of make-believe. When the laconic orphan, Pran, enters their world, he unwittingly lures the sisters into a labyrinth of their own making as they each try to escape their intertwined fates. The original Thai language edition of The Blind Earthworm in ... continue
875.
The Sad Part was by Prāpdā Yun EN
Description:
Winner of a PEN Translates! grant. Selected as a 'book to look out for in 2017' by The Guardian and BuzzFeed Books. In these witty, postmodern stories, Yoon riffs on pop culture, experiments with punctuation, flirts with sci-fi and, in a metafictional twist, mocks his own position as omnipotent author. Highly literary, his narratives offer an oblique reflection of contemporary Bangkok life, exploring the bewildering disjunct and oft-hilarious contradictions of a modernity that is at odds with many traditional Thai ideas on relationships, family, school and work. Praise for The Sad Part Was 'Ev... continue
876.
The Moon Represents My Heart by Pim Wangtechawat EN
Description:
Soon to be a major Netflix series, The Moon Represents My Heart is a lush, hopeful novel, for fans of The Immortalists and Everything I Never Told You, that follows a Chinese-British family of time travelers as they seek connections over borders--both national borders and those created by time. A love lost in time. An eternity to find it. The Wang family is hiding a secret--they all have the ability to time travel. When parents Joshua and Lily depart for the past and never return, their children Tommy and Eva are forced to deal with their grief alone. Eva tries to find her place in the present... continue
877.
Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Safak EN
TurkeyDescription:
*As mentioned on BBC's Desert Island Discs* 'A fascinating exploration of faith and friendship, rich and poor, and the devastating clash of tradition and modernity' Independent Set across Istanbul and Oxford, from the 1980s to the present day, Three Daughters of Eve is a sweeping tale of faith and friendship, tradition and modernity, love and an unexpected betrayal. Peri, a wealthy Turkish housewife, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground - an old polaroid of three you... continue
878.
Snow by Orhan Pamuk EN
Description:
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Touching, slyly comic, and humming with cerebral suspense—a masterful novel of "political intrigue and philosophy, romance and noir" (Vogue) and the lethal chemistry between secular doubt and Islamic fanaticism from the Nobel Prize winner. An exiled poet named Ka returns to Turkey and travels to the forlorn city of Kars. His ostensible purpose is to report on a wave of suicides among religious girls forbidden to wear their head-scarves. But Ka is also drawn by his memories of the radiant Ipek, now recently divorced. Amid blanketing snowfall and universal suspicion, Ka fin... continue
879.
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak EN
Description:
In her second novel written in English, one of Turkey's most acclaimed and outspoken writers confronts her country's violent past in a vivid and colorful tale about the tangled histories of two families.
880.
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak EN
Description:
'In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila's consciousness began to ebb, slowly and steadily, like a tide receding from the shore. Her brain cells, having run out of blood, were now completely deprived of oxygen. But they did not shut down. Not right away . . . ' Our brains stay active for ten minutes after our heart stops beating. For Tequila Leila, each minute brings with it a new memory- growing up with her father and his two wives in a grand old house in a quiet Turkish town; watching the women gossip and wax their legs while the men went to mosque; sneaking cigarettes and Wes... continue