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“The Shadeless Border” by Jiyar Jahan Fard
The Yarsanis are a unique ethno-religious group centered in Kermanshah, in Iranian Kurdistan. With estimated adherents surpassing one million, this little-known syncretic religion dates from the 14th century and has elements reminiscent of Zoroanstrianism and other non-Islamic traditions, and is central to The Shadeless Border, Iranian Kurdish writer and folklorist Jiyar Jahan Fard’s first novel…
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“Abandoning a Cat” by Haruki Murakami
Parents are few and far between in Haruki Murakami novels. The Japanese author’s protagonists are adrift, often removed from their… -
“Foreigners” by EL Shen
When Dawn Chin is assigned a high school history project to interview a family member, she picks her paternal grandmother…
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“The Big Book of Kashmiri Literature”
In 1958, a Kashmiri poet who earned his living cutting timber sat down in front of a radio microphone and… -
“Sutra Americana” by Monona Wali
It’s not hard to picture the leap Monona Wali made from filmmaker to writer after reading her latest novel, Sutra…
“The Courtesan, Her Lover, and I” by Tarana Husain Khan
In modern day Rampur, aspiring writer Rukmini finds herself fascinated by the life of Munni Bai Hijab: the real-life 19th-century courtesan and poet whose voice and achievements were eclipsed by her love affair with and role as muse to the great Urdu poet Dagh Delvi. As Rukmini begins researching and transcribing Hijab’s untold story, she…
“Oil Wars” by Guy Laron
The “wars” in the title of Guy Laron’s new history of the past century and a half are as much metaphorical as literal; few readers will need much convincing of his thesis that “energy is one of the core instruments of geopolitics.” There is much to be said for Laron’s adopted lens. Oil provides a…
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“The Japanese Woodblock Prints Companion” by Andreas Marks
“Under the Wave Off Kanagawa”, popularly known as “The Great Wave”, is without a doubt the most celebrated Japanese woodblock… -
“Reassembling Knowledge” by Thomas Benfey
Iranian tradition held that the first, ancient dynasty of kings had mastered all the useful sciences, from astronomy to medicine,…
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“Tree” by Aya Kōda
Until she was forty-three years old, Aya Kōda (1904-1990) was known primarily for being the daughter of the novelist Rohan… -
“Who Owns the Past?” by Shaan Kashyap
History, or least the writing of it, does not remain confined to academia or historians; it can increasingly become a…
“Hong Kong Art Deco Architecture: Unveiling the Hidden Heritage”
In Moliere’s play Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, the wannabe aesthete Monsieur Jourdain learns with delight that “for more than forty years I have been speaking prose without knowing it!” A similar sentiment arises when reading Prudence Leung Kwok Lau and Vanessa Winghei Yeung’s Hong Kong Art Deco Architecture: it seems that—except for the very few Hong…
“The Silk Road with Many Faces: Sogdian Immigrants in Early Medieval China”
The Silk Road with Many Faces focuses on a distinguished immigrant community in early medieval China (220-589 CE): the Central Asian people known as the Sogdians. Originating in present-day Uzbekistan…
“Stories from Bengal” by Rumana Yasmin
For centuries, children in Bengal have looked up at the moon and imagined Chaader Buri – the magical grandmother who spins stories from glowing moonbeam threads. Now she is ready…
“Coming of Age in Macholand” by Harjant S Gill
Through Punjabi men’s struggles to marry, migrate, love, and escape, Coming of Age in Macholand reveals what patriarchy costs the men it promises to empower. In 2019, Sandeep, a twenty-seven-year-old from…
“Battleship Yamato” by Alexander Wooley
Author Alexander Wooley explores the enduring legacy of the battleship Yamato, weaving together history, myth, and cultural impact to reveal how a wartime icon became a symbol of Japan’s identity…
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