Popular Asian Historical Fiction Books
Find historical fiction books written by authors from Asia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (335)
171.
Nights of Plague : A novel by Orhan Pamuk EN
TurkeyDescription:
From the the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature: Part detective story, part historical epic—a bold and brilliant novel that imagines a plague ravaging a fictional island in the Ottoman Empire. It is April 1900, in the Levant, on the imaginary island of Mingheria—the twenty-ninth state of the Ottoman Empire—located in the eastern Mediterranean between Crete and Cyprus. Half the population is Muslim, the other half are Orthodox Greeks, and tension is high between the two. When a plague arrives—brought either by Muslim pilgrims returning from the Mecca or by merchant vessels coming from Alex... continue
172.
Ninth Building by Zou Jingzhi EN
ChinaDescription:
Ninth Building is a fascinating collection of vignettes drawn from Zou Jingzhi's experience growing up during the Cultural Revolution, first as a boy in Beijing and then as a teenager exiled to the countryside. Zou poetically captures a side of the Cultural Revolution that is less talked about--the sheer tedium and waste of young life, as well as the gallows humor that accompanies such desperate situations. Jeremy Tiang's enthralling translation of this important work of fiction was awarded a PEN/Heim Grant.
173.
No One Prayed Over Their Graves by Khaled Khalifa EN
SyriaDescription:
From the National Book Award finalist Khaled Khalifa, the story of two friends whose lives are altered by a 1907 flood that devastates their Syrian village. On a terrible December morning in 1907, two close friends, Hanna and Zakariya, return to their village near Aleppo after a night of drunken carousing in the city, only to discover that there has been a massive flood. Their neighbors, families, children—nearly all of them are dead. Their homes, shops, and places of worship are leveled. Their lives will never be the same. Hanna was once a wealthy libertine landowner who had built a famed cit... continue
174.
Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday by Jamaluddin Aram EN
Country: Asia / 
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
WINNER OF THE RAKUTEN KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE FOR LITERARY FICTION In this novel about peace in a time of war, debut author Jamaluddin Aram masterfully breathes life into the colourful characters of the town of Wazirabad, in early 1990s Kabul, Afghanistan. It is the early 1990s, in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Russian occupation has ended, and civil war has broken out, but life roars on in full force in the working-class town of Wazirabad. A rash of burglaries has stolen people’s sleep. Fifteen-year-old Aziz awakens from a dark dream that prompts him to plant shards of glass along the wall surro... continue
175.
O amante by Marguerite Duras PT
VietnamDescription:
Prêmio Goncourt em 1984, com mais de 2 milhões e meio de exemplares vendidos apenas na França, Romance autobiográfico que acompanha a tumultuada história de amor entre uma jovem francesa e um rico comerciante chinês na Indochina pré-guerra. Com uma prosa intimista e certeira, Duras evoca a vida nas margens de Saigon nos últimos dias do império colonial da França e relembra não só sua experiência, mas também os relacionamentos que separaram sua família e que, prematuramente, gravaram em seu rosto as marcas implacáveis da maturidade.
176.
O caçador de pipas by Khaled Hosseini PT
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
Publicado em mais de 70 países e com a marca de mais de 2 milhões de exemplares vendidos apenas no Brasil, o aclamado livro O caçador de pipas, romance de estreia de Khaled Hosseini, está de volta em nova edição. O romance narra a tocante história da amizade entre Amir e Hassan, dois meninos que vivem no Afeganistão da década de 1970. Durante um campeonato de pipas, Amir perde a chance de defender Hassan, num episódio que marca a vida dos dois amigos para sempre. Vinte anos mais tarde, quando Amir está estabelecido nos Estados Unidos, após ter abandonado um Afeganistão tomado pelos soviéticos,... continue
177.
IndonesiaDescription:
'Oeroeg was mijn vriend.' Zo begint het aangrijpende verhaal van de vriendschap tussen een Indonesische jongen en de zoon van een Nederlandse administrateur in het Nederlands-Indië van voor de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Geleidelijk groeien de twee jongens uit elkaar. Wanneer de Nederlandse jongen na een studie in Delft terugkeert in het Indië dat nog net geen Indonesië is geworden, blijkt hun verwijdering te zijn uitgegroeid tot een kloof. Oeroeg heeft gekozen: voor zijn eigen volk en tegen de Nederlanders, dus ook tegen zijn vriend. Geschokt vraagt die zich af of hij voorgo... continue
178.
On Sal Mal Lane : A Novel by Ru Freeman EN
Sri LankaDescription:
In the tradition of In the Time of the Butterflies and The Kite Runner, a tender, evocative novel about the years leading up to the Sri Lankan civil war * A Library Journal Best Indie Fiction of 2013 * A Largehearted Boy Best Book of the Year * On the day the Herath family moves in, Sal Mal Lane is still a quiet street, disturbed only by the cries of the children whose triumphs and tragedies sustain the families that live there. As the neighbors adapt to the newcomers in different ways, the children fill their days with cricket matches, romantic crushes, and small rivalries. But the tremors of... continue
179.
Country: Asia / 
South Korea
South Korea
Description:
During the Pacific War, more than 200,000 Korean girls were forced into sexual servitude for Japanese soldiers. They lived in horrific conditions in “comfort stations” across Japanese-occupied territories. Barely 10 percent survived to return to Korea, where they lived as social outcasts. Since then, self-declared comfort women have come forward only to have their testimonies and calls for compensation largely denied by the Japanese government. Kim Soom tells the story of a woman who was kidnapped at the age of thirteen while gathering snails for her starving family. The horrors of her life as... continue
180.
Only This Beautiful Moment by Abdi Nazemian EN
IranDescription:
2019. Moud is an out gay teen living in Los Angeles with his distant father, Saeed. When Moud gets the news that his grandfather in Iran is dying, he accompanies his dad to Tehran, where the revelation of family secrets will force Moud into a new understanding of his history, his culture, and himself. 1978. Saeed is an engineering student with a promising future ahead of him in Tehran. But when his parents discover his involvement in the country's burgeoning revolution, they send him to safety in America, a country Saeed despises. And even worse— he's forced to live with the American grandmoth... continue