Asian literature

After the Quake: Stories

by Haruki Murakami

The six stories in Haruki Murakami’s mesmerizing collection are set at the time of the catastrophic 1995 Kobe earthquake, when Japan became brutally aware of the fragility of its daily existence. But the upheavals...

Queen of Dreams

by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

From the bestselling author of Sister of My Heart comes a spellbinding tale of mothers and daughters, love and cultural identity. Rakhi, a young painter and single mother, is struggling to come to terms with...

The Red Carpet

by Lavanya Sankaran

Wry humor and a delicious grasp of the friction between generations in Bangalore are the hallmarks of Lavanya Sankaran’s fresh, deeply nuanced debut collection. “A potpourri of beggars and billionaires and...

Vintage Murakami

by Haruki Murakami

Vintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of the greatest modern writers presented in attractive, accessible paperback editions.

“Murakami’s bold willingness to go straight over the top is a signal...

To Live: A Novel

by Yu Hua

An award-winning, internationally acclaimed Chinese bestseller, originally banned in China but recently named one of the last decade’s ten most influential books there, To Live tells the epic story of one...

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Kiriyama Prize for Fiction 2007

by Haruki Murakami

From the bestselling author of Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-up Bird Chronicles comes this superb collection of twenty-four stories that generously expresses Murakami’s mastery of the form. From the surreal...

A Case of Two Cities

Inspector Chen #4

by Qiu Xiaolong

Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau is summoned by an official of the party to take the lead in a corruption investigation - one where the principle figure and his family have long since fled...

After Dark

by Haruki Murakami & Jay Rubin

A sleek, gripping novel of encounters set in Tokyo during the spooky hours between midnight and dawn, by an internationally renowned literary phenomenon.

Murakami's trademark humor, psychological insight, and...

Piercing

by Ryu Murakami

A pulsating psycho-thriller from Ryu Murakami, author of In the Miso Soup A renaissance man for the postmodern age, Ryu Murakami—a musician, filmmaker (Tokyo Decadence), TV personality, and award-winning author—has...

The Noodle Maker

by Ma Jian & Flora Drew

From Ma Jian, the highly acclaimed Chinese dissident, comes a satirical novel about the absurdities of life in a post-Tiananmen China.

Two men meet for dinner each week. Over the course of one of these drunken...

Noblesse oblige

by Dorkmai Sot

Noble Wimon is twenty-one,

beautiful, rich, independent-minded

and a little conceited, but loved

by all and living a charmed life.

When disaster strikes, 

she must take care 

of her numerous siblings

almost single-handedly. ...

Kafka on the Shore

World Fantasy Best Novel 2006

by Haruki Murakami

Kafka on the Shore is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister;...

Madras on Rainy Days

by Samina Ali

Layla is torn among clashing identities--dutiful Muslim daughter and free, independent American woman. When she is nineteen, her parents inform Layla that a marriage has been arranged for her to an Indian man...

The 20 best novels of thailand

by Marcel Barang

Everything you need to know

about Thai literature, 

from its origins to Thai fiction today.

Literary criteria used in the selection

of the 20 best novels of the last century,

from The circus of life

to The white...

Lord of the land

by Wimon Sainimnuan

 Against a background of frenzied land speculation

where all sorts of dirty tricks are par for the course,

who of Abbot Nian and Kharm the Medium

will emerge as the Lord of the Land?

The increasingly

heated...

Khoak Phranang

by Wimon Sainimnuan

 What happens to common country folk 

when they are caught in the jaws 

of wayward religion and superstition?

This is what happens, at Khoak Phranang, 

the epicentre of rural Thailand in the 1990s.

A short,...

The Medium

by Wimon Sainimnuan

  One way out of crippling poverty 

is by putting yourself at the service

of the spirits of the land

– folk credulity will do the rest.

Thus is born the Medium,

pitting himself against unethical Buddhist monks...

Motherland

by Vineeta Vijayaraghavan

In this quiet but engaging debut novel, an American teenager spends the summer with her relatives in southern India and gains new insight into her past, her family and her heritage. Born in Kerala, Maya spent...

Do Comets Dream?

by S.P. Somtow

Every five thousand years, so the people of the planet Thanet believe, the world ends in fire and a new cycle of creation begins. Now the Last Days are once again upon them, and a fiery star draws near. This...

The Vine of Desire: A Novel

by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The beloved characters of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s bestselling novel Sister of My Heart are reunited in this powerful narrative that challenges the emotional bond between two lifelong friends, as the husband...