Read Around Asia Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Asia.
Best books from Asia (1978)
521.
The Newlyweds : Rearranging Marriage in Modern India by Mansi Choksi EN
IndiaDescription:
"In India, there are 650 million people under the age of 35. These are men and women who grew up with the Internet, and the advent of smartphones and social media. But when it comes to love and marriage, they're expected to adhere to thousands of years of tradition. It's that tension between obeying tradition and accepting modernity that drives journalist Mansi Choksi's [book]"--
522.
Malgudi Days by R. K. Narayan EN
Description:
Four gems, with new introductions, mark acclaimed Indian writer R. K. Narayan's centennial Introducing this collection of stories, R. K. Narayan describes how in India "the writer has only to look out of the window to pick up a character and thereby a story." Composed of powerful, magical portraits of all kinds of people, and comprising stories written over almost forty years, Malgudi Days presents Narayan's imaginary city in full color, revealing the essence of India and of human experience. This edition includes an introduction by Pulitzer Prize- winning author Jhumpa Lahiri. For more than s... continue
523.
A Question of Order : India, Turkey, and the Return of Strongmen by Basharat Peer EN
Description:
Neoliberals thought capitalism would bring about democracy, civil liberties, and human rights everywhere. But that is fast becoming an illusion, particularly in the East, where traditionalist and nationalist leaders are attracting religious, rural, or newly urban constituencies and ushering in an era of illiberal democracies. Peer reports from two of the world's largest democracies and examines how two charismatic strongmen came to power and moved their country in the direction of authoritarianism.
524.
The Book of Everlasting Things by Aanchal Malhotra EN
Description:
FOR FANS OF ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, A LUSH, SWEEPING LOVE STORY ABOUT A HINDU PERFUMER AND A MUSLIM CALLIGRAPHER, SET AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF PARTITION “Monumental...A far-reaching love story.” —NPR (A Best Book of the Year) “Mesmerizing.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Exquisite.” —Library Journal (starred review) “Majestic.” —Booklist (starred review) On a January morning in 1938, Samir Vij first locks eyes with Firdaus Khan through the rows of perfume bottles in his family’s ittar shop in Lahore. Over the years that follow, the perfumer’s apprentice and calligrapher’s apprentice ... continue
525.
Flying in Colors by Padma Prasad Reddeppa EN
Description:
Aunties tell nine-year-old Pavi that she's asking too many "big women" questions, but she's tired of grow-up secrets. How are babies born? And why do people die? A beautiful debut about family, tradition, and the healing that comes from finding the answers. It's 1975, Tamil Nadu, South India, and nine-year-old Pavi is living a carefree life with her large intergenerational family. Everyday is an adventure. Why not steal 233 mangoes from the neighbor's tree? Or make up grand stories that take her to Jupiter? If only there wasn't a sadness lingering over the family. You see, her uncle Selva died... continue
526.
Fury : A Novel by Salman Rushdie EN
Description:
From one of the world's truly great writers, Fury is a wickedly brilliant and pitch-black comedy about a middle-aged professor who finds himself in New York City in the summer of 2000. Not since the Bombay of Midnight's Children have a time and place been
527.
The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya EN
Description:
This heartbreaking and haunting novel takes a timeless tragedy and hurls it into present-day Afghanistan, when a woman asks for the return of her brother's body in the midst of a war. Following a desperate night-long battle, a group of beleaguered soldiers in an isolated base in Kandahar are faced with a lone woman demanding the return of her brother’s body. Is she a spy, a black widow, a lunatic, or is she what she claims to be: a grieving young sister intent on burying her brother according to local rites? Single-minded in her mission, she refuses to move from her spot on the field in full v... continue
528.
The Magnificent Ruins by Nayantara Roy EN
Description:
In this "rare feast" of a novel, a young Indian American book editor inherits her estranged family’s ancestral home–and their long-buried secrets (Rachel Lyon, author of Self-Portrait With Boy). It is the summer of 2015, and Lila De is on the verge of a breakthrough in her career at a prestigious New York publishing house. But when she gets a call from her mother in India, informing her that she’s inherited her family’s sprawling estate, she must confront the legacy of an extended family that she thought she left behind sixteen years ago. Returning to Kolkata reunites Lila with her mother afte... continue
529.
The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan EN
Description:
'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
530.
Kashmir: The Case for Freedom by Tariq Ali EN
Description:
Kashmir is one of the most protracted and bloody occupations in the world-and one of the most ignored. Under an Indian military rule that, at half a million strong, exceeds the total number of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, freedom of speech is non-existent, and human- rights abuses and atrocities are routinely visited on its Muslim-majority population. In the last two decades alone, over seventy thousand people have died. Ignored by its own corrupt politicians, abandoned by Pakistan and the West, which refuses to bring pressure to bear on its regional ally, India, the Kashmiri people's on... continue