Read Around Asia Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Asia.
Best books from Asia (1972)
1901.
Ticket to Childhood: A Novel by Nguyen Nhat Anh EN
VietnamDescription:
“This charming short work recalls The Little Prince in its depiction of childhood sensibilities pitted against an often illogical and absurd adult world” (Publishers Weekly). A fable for all ages and a massive bestseller in the author’s home country of Vietnam, Ticket to Childhood captures the texture of childhood in all of its richness. Narrated by a man looking back, it explores the small miracles and tragedies, the misadventures and misdeeds, that made up his life. We meet his long-lost friends, none of whom can forget how rich their lives once were. Even if Nguyen Nhat Anh can’t take us ba... continue
1902.
At Home in the World : Stories and Essential Teachings from a Monk’s Life by Thich Nhat Hanh EN
Description:
Thich Nhat Hanh shares 81 personal life stories with his signature simplicity and humor—illustrating his most essential teachings on mindfulness, peace, and social engagement. Collected here for the first time, these personal, autobiographical stories from peace activist and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh perfectly illustrate his most essential teachings. The beauty of these simple lessons is that readers do not need to be versed in meditation or Buddhist practices to find peace, sanctuary, and sustenance here. Told with his signature clarity and humor, these stories are drawn from the long span o... continue
1903.
O amante by Marguerite Duras PT
Description:
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.
1904.
Description:
The seven stories in Nam Le's masterful collection take us across the globe, guiding us to the heart of what it means to be human. From the slums of Colombia to Iowa City and from the streets of Tehran to a foundering vessel in the South China Sea, here are thrilling versatile tales that herald the arrival of a remarkable new writer.
1905.
Be Free Where You Are by Thich Nhat Hanh EN
Description:
Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. This compendium of the core teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, based on a talk given at a prison, shows how mindfulness practice can cultivate freedom no matter where you are.
1906.
36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem by Nam Le EN
Description:
An explosive, devastating debut book of poetry from the acclaimed author of The Boat In his first international release since the award-winning, best-selling The Boat, Nam Le delivers a shot across the bow with a book-length poem that honors every convention of diasporic literature—in a virtuosic array of forms and registers—before shattering the form itself. In line with the works of Claudia Rankine, Cathy Park Hong, and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, this book is an urgent, unsettling reckoning with identity—and the violence of identity. For Le, a Vietnamese refugee in the West, this means the assum... continue
1907.
Monkey Bridge : A Novel by Lan Cao EN
Description:
Hailed by critics and writers as powerful, important fiction, Monkey Bridge charts the unmapped territory of the Vietnamese American experience in the aftermath of war. Like navigating a monkey bridge—a bridge, built of spindly bamboo, used by peasants for centuries—the narrative traverses perilously between worlds past and present, East and West, in telling two interlocking stories: one, the Vietnamese version of the classic immigrant experience in America, told by a young girl; and the second, a dark tale of betrayal, political intrigue, family secrets, and revenge—her mother's tale. The hau... continue
1908.
The Lotus and the Storm : A Novel by Lan Cao EN
Description:
An epic tale of love, loyalty, and war from the acclaimed author of Monkey Bridge Half a century after it began, the Vietnam War still has a hold on our national psyche. Lan Cao’s now-classic debut, Monkey Bridge, won her wide renown for “connecting . . . the opposite realities of Vietnam and America” (Isabel Allende). In her triumphant new novel, Cao transports readers back to the war, illuminating events central to twentieth-century history through the lives of one Vietnamese American family. Minh is a former South Vietnamese commander of the airborne brigade who left his homeland with his d... continue
1909.
A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, a History, A Memorial by Viet Thanh, Nguyen EN
Description:
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024 'A triumphant memoir' Cathy Park Hong, author of MINOR FEELINGS, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize The highly original, blistering, and unconventional memoir by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer, which has now sold over one million copies worldwide With insight, humour, formal invention, and lyricism, in A Man of Two Faces Nguyen rewinds the film of his own life. He expands the genre of personal memoir by acknowledging larger stories of refugeehood, colonization, and ideas about Vietnam and America, writing with hi... continue
1910.
Description:
An abandoned package is discovered in the Paris Metro: the subway workers suspect it's a terrorist bomb. A Vietnamese woman sitting nearby, her son asleep on her shoulder, waits and begins to reflect on her life, from her constrained childhood in communist Hanoi, to a long period of study in Lenin-grad during the Gorbachev period, and finally to the Parisian suburbs where she now teaches English. Through everything runs her passion for Thuy, the father of her son, a writer who lives in Saigon's Chinatown, and who, with the shadow of the China-Vietnam border war falling darkly between them, she... continue