Popular Asian Historical Books
Find historical books written by authors from Asia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (138)
61.
Oswiu: King of Kings by Edoardo Albert EN
Sri LankaDescription:
Oswald's head is on a spike. Can Oswiu avoid the same fate? The great pagan king Penda set a trap, and when the brothers Oswiu and Oswald walked in, only one came back alive. Rumours abound that the place where Oswald's body is strung up has become sacred ground - a site of healing for those who seek it. Oswald's mother believes he will protect those he loves, even beyond the grave. So she asks the impossible of Oswiu: to journey to the heart of Penda's kingdom and rescue the body that was stolen from them. Will this fateful task allow Oswiu to prove himself worthy of uniting the kingdoms unde... continue
62.
Our Holocaust by Amir Gutfreund EN
IsraelDescription:
Amir and Effi collected relatives. With Holocaust survivors for parents and few other "real" relatives alive, relationships operated under a "Law of Compression" in which tenuous connections turned friends into uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Life was framed by Grandpa Lolek, the parsimonious and eccentric old rogue who put his tea bags through Selektion, and Grandpa Yosef, the neighborhood saint, who knew everything about everything, but refused to talk of his own past. Amir and Effi also collected information about what happened Over There. This was more difficult than collecting relative... continue
63.
Country: Asia / 
South Korea
South Korea
Description:
* The million-copy bestseller* * National Book Award finalist * * An instant New York Times Bestseller and one of their 10 Best Books of 2017 * * Selected for Emma Watson's Our Shared Shelf book club * 'This is a captivating book... Min Jin Lee's novel takes us through four generations and each character's search for identity and success. It's a powerful story about resilience and compassion' BARACK OBAMA. Yeongdo, Korea, 1911. Teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a fisherman, falls for a wealthy yakuza. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant – and that her lover i... continue
64.
Pakistan in an Age of Turbulence by Masuma Hasan EN
IndiaDescription:
A detailed and graphic personal and family history within a national and international context. It mirrors and brings to life the modern and contemporary history of the Indian sub-continent and of India and Pakistan, and the dramatic birth-struggles of both major nation states dominating South Asia. And the complex racial, religious and ethnic mix was central to turbulent politics and Islamic identity is a factor in international politics. The overshadowing influence of the British Indian Empire was a constant factor and sets the context. The huge upheaval and tragedy of Partition is at the he... continue
65.
Palestine : A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha EN
Description:
This rich and magisterial work traces Palestine's millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history. Starting with the earliest references in Egyptian and Assyrian texts, Nur Masalha explores how Palestine and its Palestinian identity have evolved over thousands of years, from the Bronze Age to the present day. Drawing on a rich body of sources and the latest archaeological evidence, Masalha shows how Palestine's multicultural past has been distorted and mythologised by Biblical lore and the... continue
66.
Pearling in the Arabian Gulf : A Kuwaiti Memoir by Sayf Marzūq Shamlān EN
KuwaitDescription:
Born in Kuwait in 1926, into a distinguished Kuwaiti family of pearl merchants and seafarers, Saif Marzooq al- Shamlan describes the final generation of the pearling industry from 1900 to the slump of the 1930s, when the development of the Japanese cultured pearl led to economic disaster for the people of the Gulf.
67.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi EN
IranDescription:
BEST SELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. “A wholly original achievement.... Satrapi evokes herself and her schoolmates coming of age in a world of protests and disappearances.... A stark, shocking impact.” —The New York Times: "The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years" In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the coming-of-age story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regim... continue
68.
Pinjar: The Skeleton and Other Stories by Amrita Pitam EN
PakistanDescription:
"The skeleton ... [is] set against the background of religious and clan feuds on the eve of Partition ... That man is a compelling account of a young man born under strange circumstances and abandoned at the altar of God"--Page 4 of cover
China70.
Records of the Historian; Chapters from the Shih Chi by Sima Qian EN
Description:
"To 18 chapters and a brief excerpt dealing with the Han dynasty and published earlier in Records of the Grand Historian of China (2 vols., 1961) are here added five chapters pertaining to the preceding Chou and Ch'in dynasties. The purpose of the selection is to suggest to the reader something of the form and content of the first great Chinese historical work, to indicate the type of material Ssu-ma Ch'ien presents and his methods of presentation, and to allow the reader to enjoy some of the more famous and highly praised passages in a book dear to many generations of Chinese readers."--Publi... continue