Popular Asian Satire Books
Find satire books written by authors from Asia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (14)
1.
Animal Farm by George Orwell EN
IndiaDescription:
A satire on totalitarianism in which farm animals overthrow their human owner and set up their own government.
2.
De wonderlijke lotgevallen van Sa'ied de Pessoptimist by Imīl Šukrī Ḥabībī, Djûke Poppinga NL
PalestineDescription:
De bizarre avonturen van een Palestijnse verklikker in dienst van de Israëlische geheime dienst.
3.
ChinaDescription:
From "China's foremost literary satirist" (Financial Times) comes a captivating new novel set at a religious training center in Beijing, focusing on the unlikely love story of a Buddhist nun and a Daoist priest At the Religious Training Center on the campus of Beijing's National Politics University, disciples of China's five main religions--Buddhism, Daoism, Protestantism, Catholicism, and Islam--gather for a year of intensive study and training. They live in dormitories, eat at shared tables in the cafeteria, and attend lectures to learn about their own religion while also sharing in the less... continue
4.
Kappa by Ryunosuke Akutagawa EN
JapanDescription:
Akutagawa’s magical final work is a short novel with a magic spell all its own—poignant, fantastical, wry, melancholic, and witty The Kappa is a creature from Japanese folklore known for dragging unwary toddlers to their deaths in rivers: a scaly, child-sized creature, looking something like a frog, but with a sharp, pointed beak and an oval-shaped saucer on top of its head, which hardens with age. Akutagawa’s Kappa is narrated by Patient No. 23, a madman in a lunatic asylum: he recounts how, while out hiking in Kamikochi, he spots a Kappa. He decides to chase it and, like Alice pursuing the W... continue
5.
Kvachi by Mixeil Javaxišvili EN
GeorgiaDescription:
This is, in brief, the story of a swindler, a Georgian Felix Krull, or perhaps a cynical Don Quixote, named Kvachi Kvachantiradze: womanizer, cheat, perpetrator of insurance fraud, bank-robber, associate of Rasputin, filmmaker, revolutionary, and pimp. Though originally denounced as pornographic, Kvachi's tale is one of the great classics of twentieth-century Georgian literature--and a hilarious romp to boot.
6.
Now You See Us by Balli Kaur Jaswal EN
SingaporeDescription:
We are invisible: we clean your houses, we look after your children, we know your secrets. But now you know one of ours...
7.
Quichotte : A Novel by Salman Rushdie EN
Description:
***SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019*** In a tour-de-force that is both an homage to an immortal work of literature and a modern masterpiece about the quest for love and family, Booker Prize-winning, internationally bestselling author Salman Rushdie has created a dazzling Don Quixotefor the modern age. Inspired by the Cervantes classic, Sam DuChamp, mediocre writer of spy thrillers, creates Quichotte, a courtly, addled salesman obsessed with television, who falls in impossible love with the TV star Salman R. Together with his (imaginary) son Sancho, Quichotte sets off on a picaresque quest... continue
8.
Raag Darbari by Shrilal Shukla EN
Description:
"MA pass Rangnath arrives at Shivpalganj to spend some time with his uncle Valdyaji, the most important person in the village and the man who controls the grain cooperative and the intermediate college. There is a rebellion brewing among the college teachers; and Ramadhin, Vaidyaji's archi-rival, won't give up the village council without a fight. Factionalism, wheeling and dealing, and corruption take centre stage. Confronted with such chaos, Rangnath finds his textbook learning irrelevant"--Back cover.
9.
The book censor’s library by Bothayna Al-Essa EN
KuwaitDescription:
"The new book censor hasn't slept soundly in weeks. By day he combs through manuscripts at a government office, looking for anything that would make a book unfit to publish--allusions to queerness, unapproved religions, any mention of life before the Revolution. By night the characters of literary classics crowd his dreams, and pilfered novels pile up in the house he shares with his wife and daughter. As the siren song of forbidden reading continues to beckon, he descends into a netherworld of resistance fighters, undercover booksellers, and outlaw librarians trying to save their history and c... continue
10.
The Disconnected by Oguz Atay EN
TurkeyDescription:
“My life was a game, but I wanted it to be taken seriously,” says Selim, the anti-hero of the novel. But the game has a terrible end with his suicide, and his friend Turgut’s quest to understand this is the story of the book. He meets friends whom Selim had kept separate from each other, he finds documents in a kaleidoscopic variety of styles, sometimes hugely funny, sometimes very moving, as Selim rails against the ugliness of his world whether in satire or in a howl of anguish, taking refuge in words and loneliness.
Under layers of fantasy is the central concept of the D... continue