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“Just Being” by Romila Thapar
The first book I ever read about India was Romila Thapar’s 1965 History of India, published by Penguin. That little book dazzled with its sprawling scope and storytelling magic, but one also felt the presence of the author’s critical mind tackling perennial questions: what is history; how do we understand it; what is the purpose…
“First Bite: Breakfast Stories from Urban India” by Priyadarshini Chatterjee
Breakfast, the first meal of the day, in India carries two competing traditions. On one hand, ritual references to food…
“Jade People” by Angus Forsyth
Among the earliest examples of sculptural art are representations of the human figure, like the 25,000-year-old Willendorf Venus discovered in…
“To Rule All under Heaven: A History of Classical China…” by Andrew Seth Meyer
Many books about ancient Chinese history are written for those already in the know; there is a dearth of accessible…“The Future That Was” by Durba Mitra
Decolonisation and nation-building were twinned processes in the second half of the 20th century. But for Durba Mitra, author of…
“Mother of the World” by Olivier Hein
Olivier Hein’s Mother of the World: The Remarkable History of Turkmenistan announces its ambitions early. Where most national histories begin with political dynasties or patterns of migration, Hein starts tens of millions of years ago with the geological processes that formed the Karakum Desert. It is an unusual choice and a revealing one. From the…
“The Young Die Old” by Nguyễn Bình Phương
The Young Die Old is Nguyễn Bình Phương second novel and was published in 1994 to great acclaim in his homeland where it is considered a modern classic. After having been previously published in French and Korean, it is now also available in English, translated by Khải Q Nguyễn. The novel marks a radical departure…
“Madame Chrysanthème” by Pierre Loti
French literature has had an outsized influence on Italian opera. Rigoletto, Manon Lescaut, La traviata, Tosca, L’elisir d’amore, La bohème…
“The Best of Urdu Short Stories”
Anthologists are wont to label their collections “the best” or “the greatest”. In The Best of Urdu Short Stories, Mehr…
“Birds in a Gale: A Novel” by Ata Nahai
Nahai, who hails from Iranian Kurdistan, is regarded as one of the leading contemporary novelists writing in Kurdish. Birds in…
“Good-Bye” by Osamu Dazai
Osamu Dazai’s Good-Bye is a collection of short stories picked from different stages of his career, most of which have…
“Leave and Come Back” by Lavanya Lakshmi
Shah Rukh Khan is such a well-known Indian actor that his name is likely to be recognized even by people who are not devotees of Bollywood films. Lavanya Lakshmi pays homage to a 1995 Shah Rukh Khan film, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (or DDLJ as she has it), in her debut novel, Leave and Come…
“Xiong Yanghe: Family, Military Career and Taijiquan Legacy” by Michael A DeMarco
Born in Jiangsu Province in 1889, Xiong Yanghe grew up on his family’s estate. His early decades were marked by warfare among various factions within China and devastating encroachments by…
“The Woven Image” by Yong Cho
East Asia’s Yuan Empire (1271–1368), led by the nomadic Mongol people and Qubilai Khan (1215–1294), was marked by cross-cultural exchange and significant developments in trade, technology, and infrastructure. The Mongol…
“Chitra Demands to Go Home” by Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay
A poignant debut novel that explores mother-son relationships, cross-cultural conversations, and the tribulations of getting older. Chitra Demands to Go Home tells the story of Chitra, a 75-year-old Bengali woman who…
“Songs in a Time Confinement” by Rashmy
Rashmy writes poetry in a Tamil unique to the East Coast of Sri Lanka, embedded in its ecologies and heavily influenced by its folklore, centuries of trade, and echoes of…
“Miya’s Mooncakes” by Crystal Z Lee
It’s almost time for Miya’s favorite holiday, the Mid-Autumn Festival. She loves all the holiday traditions: moon gazing, lighting lanterns, and best of all, baking and eating mooncakes! But after…
“The Transpacific Chinese Diaspora” by Zhongping Chen
In The Transpacific Chinese Diaspora, Chen examines the origins, rise, and reform of the Cantonese-dominated Chinese diaspora in Canada between 1788 and 1898. Combining a diasporic approach with both qualitative…
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