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)
301.
The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee EN
Country: Asia / 
South Korea
South Korea
Description:
Thirty years after vying for the attentions of a beautiful but damaged missionary wife at a Korean orphanage, Korean orphan June Han and former GI Hector Brennan are reunited by a plot that forces them to come to terms with mysterious secrets from their past. By the author of Native Speaker.
302.
The Sweetest Dream by Doris Lessing EN
IranDescription:
This story of a family, spanning most of the twentieth century, has its fulcrum in the Sixties, that contradictory and embattled decade about which argument becomes louder each day. The youth of that time, bursting old bonds and demanding freedoms, were seen by some of their elders in a manner not at all as they saw themselves, as romantic idealists, but as deeply damaged people. Old Julia, the clan's matriarch, knows why. "You can't have two dreadful wars and then say 'That's it, and now everything will go back to normal.' They're screwed up, our children, they are the children of war." Remar... continue
303.
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen EN
VietnamDescription:
*** WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016*** WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL 2016 WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION 2016 'A fierce novel written in a refreshingly high style and charged with intelligent rage' Financial Times It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware tha... continue
304.
The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies EN
MalaysiaDescription:
Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married to a rich and charming widower, eager to join him on his tea plantation, determined to be the perfect wife and mother. But life in Ceylon is not what Gwen expected. The plantation workers are resentful, the neighbours treacherous. And there are clues to the past - a dusty trunk of dresses, an overgrown gravestone in the grounds - that her husband refuses to discuss. Just as Gwen finds her feet, disaster strikes. She faces a terrible choice, hiding the truth from almost everyone, but a secret this big can't stay buried forever . . .
305.
The Teacher by Michal Ben-Naftali EN
IsraelDescription:
Based on true events, the story of a Holocaust survivor who spent her life trying to disappear.
306.
The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan EN
IndiaDescription:
'The narrative alternates between seductive languor and racy action which capture the opulence and drama of the Mughal kings. Sundaresan delightfully combines history and juicy gossip' - India Today Mehrunnisa - the Sun of Women - one of India's most legendary and controversial empresses ... a woman who overcame insurmountable obstacles through sheer brilliance and determination ... whose love shaped the course of the Mughal Empire. She is the twentieth wife. The daughter of refugees from Persia, growing up on the fringes of Emperor Akbar's opulent palace grounds, Mehrunnisa first encounters P... continue
307.
The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf EN
Description:
Amidst the Chinese-Malay conflict in Kuala Lumpur in 1969, sixteen-year-old Melati must overcome prejudice, violence, and her own OCD to find her way back to her mother.
308.
The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk EN
TurkeyDescription:
Winner of the 1990 Independent Award for foreign fiction, this book tells the story of a young Italian scholar who is captured by pirates. Put up for auction at the Istanbul slave market, he is bought by a Turkish servant, eager to learn about scientific and intellectual advances in the West.
309.
The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds by Selina Siak Chin Yoke EN
SingaporeDescription:
Facing challenges in an increasingly colonial world, Chye Hoon, a rebellious young girl, must learn to embrace her mixed Malayan-Chinese identity as a Nyonya-- and her destiny as a cook, rather than following her first dream of attending school like her brother. Chye Hoon begins to appreciate the richness of her traditions, eventually marrying Wong Peng Choon, a Chinese man. Together, they have ten children. But by the 1930s the cultural shift towards the West has begun, and Chye Hoon is in danger of losing the heritage she so prizes as her children move more and more into the modern Western w... continue
310.
The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic by Nick Joaquin EN
Country: Asia / 
Philippines
Philippines
Description:
Celebrating the centennial of his birth, the first-ever U.S. publication of Philippine writer Nick Joaquin’s seminal works, with a foreword by PEN/Open Book Award–winner Gina Apostol A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice Nick Joaquin is widely considered one of the greatest Filipino writers, but he has remained little-known outside his home country despite writing in English. Set amid the ruins of Manila devastated by World War II, his stories are steeped in the post-colonial anguish and hopes of his era and resonate with the ironic perspectives on colonial history of Gabriel García Már... continue