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The 40 Best Asian Books

February 9, 2016April 1, 2017 by

“What are the best Asian books?” We looked at 31 articles and 440 different books in an attempt to answer that very question. Below you will find an aggregated list of our results of the top 40 Asian Books of all-time.

The methodology we use when creating lists doesn’t focus on the most popular or prestigious publications, instead looking at the top results an average person would find when searching in Google. “Best Asian Books” is a very broad open-ended query, and as a result the articles used to aggregate our list and the books included within are wide ranging. Some lists focus on Asian authors, others on Asian American literature, and others on books that take place on the Asian continent. East Asian books tended to dominate the list, while other areas like Central Asia were left off almost completely. We plan to take a similar large scale looks at other continents, as well as dive down deeper for smaller regions and cities of the world in the future.

22.) Lon Po Po by Ed Young

Appears on: 2 Lists
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6.) The Beach by Alex Garland

Appears on: 3 Lists
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The 400 Additional Books Appearing on a Single List

1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh Srinath Raghavan
1Q84 | Haruki Murukami
A Carp for Kimiko Kroll, Virginia
A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
A Crash of Rhinos
A Day in the Life of Japan by Rick Smolan
A Dictionary of Maqiao Han Shaogong
A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry
A History of Inner Asia Svat Soucek
A Life Less Ordinary” by Baby Halder
A Little Life
A Shadow In Summer (Daniel Abraham
A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement
John Stratton Hawley
A Thousand Splendid Suns
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers’ by Yiyun Li
A to Zen Wells, Ruth
Across The Nightingale Floor (Lian Hearn
Age of Entanglement: German and Indian Intellectuals across Empire
Kris Manjapra
All About H Hatterr G V Desani
Aloft,
Amar Akbar Anthony: Bollywood, Brotherhood, and the Nation
William Elison, Christian Lee Novetzke, and Andy Rotman
America Is in the Heart: A Personal History by Carlos Bulosan
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
An Insular Possession Timothy Mo
And the Mountains Echoed
Anil’s Ghost” by Michael Ondaatje
Animal Eye
Animal’s People”
Another Quiet American: Stories of Life in Laos Author: Brett Dakin
Ant Egg Soup: The Adventures of a Food Tourist in Laos Author:
Natacha Du Pont De Bie
Are You Experienced? William Sutcliffe
Army and Nation: The Military and Indian Democracy since
Independence Steven I. Wilkinson
Arranged Marriage
Ashoka in Ancient India Nayanjot Lahiri
Asia by Olivier Föllmi
Ask Me No Questions
At the Beach Lee, Huy Voun
At the Drive-In Volcano
Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki, illustrated by Dom Lee
Basti by Intizar Husain
Beautiful Warrior McCully, Emily Arnold
Becoming Madame Mao Anchee Min
Bee-bim Bop by Linda Sue Park, illustrated by Ho Baek Lee
Beijing Coma – Ma Jian
Below the Crying Mountain,” by Criselda Yabes
Bite Hard,
Bitter Dumplings Lee, Jeanne M.
Bombay-London-New York
Braided Path (Chris Wooding
Bridge Of Birds (Barry Hughart
Brooklyn Antediluvian
Burden of Ashes
Burmese Days Author: George Orwell
Burnings
Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie
Butcher and Bolt by David Loyn – excellent primer on Afghanistan
Carrying Cambodia by Hans Kemp
Cat and Rat Young, Ed
Cat Country Lao She
Celebrating Chinese New Year Hoyt-Goldsmith, Diane
Central Asia in World History – Peter Golden
Changing Homelands: Hindu Politics and the Partition of India
Neeti Nair
Children of Dust
China Dolls
China Men
China Road by Rob Gifford
CHINA: Portrait of a People by Tom Carter
China’s Bravest Girl Chin, Charlie
Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew by Shehan Karunatilaka
Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes Wyndham, Robert
Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer | Cyrus Mistry
Citizenship and Its Discontents: An Indian History Niraja
Gopal Jayal
Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream by Jenny Han
Colored Cosmopolitanism: The Shared Struggle for Freedom in the
United States and India Nico Slate
Colors of Japan Littlefield, Holly
Coming of Age in Mississippi’ by Anne Moody
Contested Lands: Israel–Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Cyprus, and Sri
Lanka Sumantra Bose
Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants Sunil S. Amrith
Crow Boy by Taro Yashima
Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer
Dahanu Road,” by Anosh Irani
Dance Dance Revolution
Dance, Dance, Amy-Chan by Lucy Ozone Hawkinson
Daughter Of The Empire (Raymond E. Feist
Dear Jenny, We Are All Find.
Dear Juno by Soyung Park, illustrated by Susan Kathleen
Hartung
Decoded Mai Jia
Descent into Chaos by Ahmed Rashid
Diary of a Madman Lu Xun
Dogeaters’ by Jessica Hagedorn
Dragon In Chains (Daniel Fox
Dragonfish
Dream of Ding Village Yan Lianke
Eat, Pray, Love
Edinburgh
Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s
Vietnam Author: Fredrik Logevall
Empire of the Sun JG Ballard
Empires of the Silk Road by Christopher Beckwith
Enchantress of Florence
Engine Empire
Eon: Dragoneye Reborn (Alison Goodman
Evening is the Whole Day
Everyday Life in Central Asia – Jeff Sahadeo
Everything I Never Told You
Family Planning
Finding George Orwell in Burma Author: Emma Larkin
First Darling of the Morning
Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941–1945 Christopher
Bayly and Tim Harper
Forgotten Country
Forgotten Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia
Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper
Fortress Besieged Qian Zhongshu
FROM THIRD WORLD TO FIRST: THE SINGAPORE STORY 1965-2000
Furious Lullaby
Gandhi’s Printing Press: Experiments in Slow Reading Isabel
Hofmeyr
Ghost Wars” by Steve Coll
Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
Gifted
Goat Days | Benyamin
God’s Terrorists by Charles Allen (fascinating although the author
felt he could have done better)
Graffiti My Soul Niven Govinden
Grandpa’s Town Nomura, Takaaki
Great Games, Local Rules – Alexander Cooley
Gutted
Happy New Year! Demi
Harmless Medicine
Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw
Heat and Dust Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Hiroshima by Laurence Yep
His Majesty’s Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India’s Struggle
against Empire Sugata Bose
Hoang Breaks the Lucky Teapot by Rosemary Breckler, illustrated by
Adrian Frankel
Holy Warriors: A Journey into the Heart of Indian Fundamentalismby
Edna Fernandes
Home Is Where The Heart Is Author: Geraldine Cox
Honor Thy Children: One Family’s Journey to Wholeness, by Molly
Fumia
Hot, Hot Roti for Dada-ji by F. Zia, illustrated by Ken Min
Hotel Iris,” by Yoko Ogawa
Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
Husband of a Fanatic
Hush! A Thai Lullaby
I Once was a Monkey Lee, Jeanne M.
I’m Not Saying, I’m Just Saying
Ichiro by Ryan Inzana
Ilustrado | Miguel Syjuco
Imperial Life in the Emerald City
In Beautiful Disguises Rajeev Balasubramanyam
In the Moonlight Mist San Souci, Daniel
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord,
illustrated by Marc Simont
India After Gandhi”
India: In Word and Image by Eric Meola
Indians in Kenya: The Politics of Diaspora Sana Aiyar
Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Inside Central Asia by Dilip Hiro
Inspector Chen Series by Qiu Xiaolong
InvAsian: Growing Up Asian and Female in the United States by
Evelyn Rodrigues
Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari’a
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im
It’s Back to School We Go! Jackson, Ellen
Jade Lady Burning – Martin Limon
Jasmine
JOSE MARIA SISON: AT HOME IN THE WORLD – PORTRAIT OF A
REVOLUTIONARY
Journeys on the Silk Road – Joyce Morgan & Conrad Walters
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace Sumantra Bose
Khandahar Cockney by James Fergusson – eye opening book about the
life of an asylum seeker from Afghanistan
Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam
Author: Nick Turse
Kogi’s Mysterious Journey Partridge, Elizabeth
Korea: As Seen by Magnum Photographers
Last Quarter of the Moon Chi Zijian
Letters From Burma Author: Aung San Suu Ky
Lifting the Veil by Ismat Chughtai
Listening to Grasshoppers”
Little Daruma and Little Tiger Kako, Satoshi
Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children
of Nepal by Conor Grennan
Lonely Planet The Asia Book
Long is a Dragon Goldstein, Peggy
Love in a Fallen City Eileen Chang
Love Marriage
Lucky Fish
Malgudi Days by RK Narayan
Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam
Marrying Anita
Miracle Fruit
Miss Bangkok: Memoirs of a Thai Prostitute by Bua Boonmee
Mission to Tashkent” by F.M. Bailey
Mona in the Promised Land’ by Gish Jen
Mongrel
Monkey King Young, Ed
Monkey-man,” by Usha K.R.
Monsoon
Monstress
Moth Smoke
Mr Nice
Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea Faisal Devji
My American Kundiman, Boneshepherds
My Revolutions Hari Kunzru
Names Above Houses
Native Speaker
Night Sky With Exit Wounds
No
Northern Girls Sheng Keyi
Off the Books: The Underground Economy and the Urban Poor
Older Brother, Younger Brother retold by Nina Jaffe, illustrated by
Wenhai Ma
On My Way to Buy Eggs by Chih. Y. Chen
On Such a Full Sea
ON THE WINGS OF A WHITE HORSE
Once the Shore
Once Upon a Time In England Helen Walsh
One Afternoon by Yumi Heo
One Is a Drummer: A Book of Numbers
Oni Wa Soto Spagnoli, Cathy
Ooka the Wise: Tales of Old Japan by I. G. Edmonds, illustrated by
Sanae Yamazaki
Paper Mage (Leah R. Cutter
Partisans of Allah: Jihad in South Asia Ayesha Jalal
Passage to Vietnam : Through the Eyes of Seventy Photographers
Passport Photos
Patna Roughtcut” by Siddharth Chowdhury
PERFUME DREAMS: REFLECTIONS ON THE VIETNAMESE DIASPORA
Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature” edited by Amit Chaudhuri
Please Look After Mother | Shin Kyung-sook
Post Subject
Power Politics”
Rashomon Ryunosuke Akutagawa
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Red Azalea
Red Earth and Pouring Rain
Red Is a Dragon: A Book of Colors
Red Sorghum Mo Yan
Religions of the Silk Road – Richard Foltz
Requiem for the Orchard
Righteous Republic: The Political Foundations of Modern India
Ananya Vajpeyi
River of Fire” by Quarratulain Hyder
River of Smoke
Robert Byron – The Road to Oxiana
Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes
Sacred Games
Saraswati Park Anjali Joseph
Satori – Don Winslow
Saving Fish From Drowning
Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology, by Jeff
Yang, Perry Shen Keith Chow, and Jerry Ma
Serious Men,” by Manu Joseph
Shanghai Girls
Shibumi and the Kitemaker Mayer, Mercer
Silence by Shusaku Endo
Silk Road by Colin Thubron
Sister of My Heart
Six Girls Without Pants
Snake Agent (Liz Williams
Snow by Orhan Pamuk (although I feel My Name is Red is better, this
one is more relevant to contemporary Turkey)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Snow Hunters
Sold by Patricia McCormick
Sons and Other Flammable Objects
South Southeast by Steve McCurry
SOUTHEAST ASIAN HISTORY: ESSENTIAL READINGS
Spirit Gate (Kate Elliott
Spring Snow Yukio Mishima
Step Across This Line”
Taxi! Cabs and Capitalism in New York City
Ten Thousand Waves
Tenzin’s Deer Soros, Barbara
The Adventures of Amir Hamza (translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi)
The Army and Democracy: Military Politics in Pakistan Aqil Shah
The Assassins Of Tamurin (S. D. Tower)
The Ballad of Mulan Zhang, Song Nan
The Barbarians are Coming by David Wong Louie
The Black Album Hanif Kureishi
The Boat to Redemption | Su Tong
The Bonesetter’s Daughter
The Book of Sins Chen Xiwo
The Boy with the Topknot Sathnam Sanghera
The Changeling,” by Kenzaburo Oe
The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India’s Future
Martha C. Nussbaum
The Cooked Seed
The Damage Done Author: Warren Fellows
The Dancing Pig by Judy Sierra, illustrated by Jesse Sweetwater
The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
The Doctor’s Wife by Sawako Ariyoshi
The Dragon Prince Yep, Laurence
The Dream of the Red Chamber Cao Xueqin
The Emperor and the Kite Yolen, Jane
The Empire of the Steppes – Ren Grousset
The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and its Responsibility for
9/11
THE ENGLISH GOVERNESS AT THE SIAMESE COURT
The Essential Tagore Rabindranath Tagore, edited by Fakrul Alam
and Radha Chakravarty, with a foreword by Amit Chaudhuri
The Eye of Jade – Diane Wei Liang
The Firekeeper’s Son Park, Linda Sue
The Forbidden Book: The Philippine-american War in Political
Cartoons, Abe Ignacio, Enrique de la Cruz, Jorge Emmanuel, Helen
Toribio
The Future of Freedom
The Gandhian Moment Ramin Jahanbegloo, with a foreword by the
Dalai Lama
The Garden of Evening Mists | Tan Twan Eng
The Girl With the Golden Parachute”
The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
The Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
The Good Earth Pearl S Buck
The Good Muslim
The Great Indian Phone Book: How the Cheap Cell Phone Changes
Business, Politics, and Daily Life Assa Doron andRobin Jeffrey
The Greatest Treasure Demi
The Green Frogs Heo, Yumi
The Half-Child – Angela Savage
The Holder of the World Bharati Mukherjee
The Home and the World Rabindranath Tagore
The Housekeeper And The Professor by Yoko Ogawa
the Hundred-Year Flood
The Hungriest Boy in the World Namioka, Lensey
The Hungry World: America’s Cold War Battle against Poverty in Asia
Nick Cullather
The Immortals
The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the Temptation of Violence
Faisal Devji
The Inheritance of Loss,
The Initiate Brother (Sean Russell)
The Invention of the Kaleidoscope
The Journal of Wong Ming Chung, a Chinese miner by Laurence Yep
The Journey: Japanese Americans, Racism, and Renewal by Sheila
Hamanaka
The Joy Luck Club
The King’s Secret Farley, Carol
The Kite Runner
The Korean Cinderella Climo, Shirley
The Last Communist Virgin
The Last Illusion.
The Last Song of Dusk by Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi
The Laziest Boy in the World Xuan Yong-sheng
The Lonely Planet Story
The Lost Horse Young, Ed
The Lost Road to Innocence Author: Somaly Mam
The Magic Fan Baker, Keith
The Making of Monkey King Kraus, Robert & Chen, Debbie
The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki
The Man With the Compound Eyes Wu Ming-yi
The Middleman and Other Stories
The Ministry of Truth: Kim Jong-Il’s North Korea by Eva Munz
The Mistress of Spices
The Moon Lady by Amy Tan
The Mouse Bride Chang, Monica
The new Central Asia: Geopolitics and the Birth of Nations –
Olivier Roy
The Noodle Maker Ma Jian
The Occult by Naiyer Masud
The Oil and the Glory – Steve LeVine
The Orientalist” by Tom Reiss
The Paladin (C.J. Cherryh
The People in the Trees
The Post-American World
The Prince Of Shadows (Jennifer St. Clair
The Queen of the Night
The Racial Middle: Latinos and Asian Americans Living Beyond the
Racial Divide by Eileen O,Brien
The Real Story of Ah Q and Other Tales of China Lu Xun,
The Red Carpet by Lavanya Sankaran
The River of Lost Footsteps Author: Thant Myint-U
The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese
Family by Duong Van Mai Elliott
The Silk Road in World History – Xinru Liu
The Silver Charm San Souci, Robert D.
The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing
The Space Between Us,
The Stonecutter by Demi
The Story Hour
The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics
Ayesha Jalal
The Surrendered
The Sympathizer
The Technological Indian Ross Bassett
The Temple-Goers by Aatish Taseer
The Thing About Thugs,” by Tabish Khair
The Thousand Nights and One Night Anonymous
The Triumph of the Snake Goddess Kaiser Haq, with an
Introduction by Wendy Doniger
The Turks in World History – Carter Vaughn Findley
The Two Love Stars Lee Mi-ae
The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood Author: Kien Nguyen
The Vagrants Yiyun Li
The Village by the Sea by Anita Desai
The Wandering Falcon
The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam
The Way of the World – Nicholas Bouvier
The Weary Generations by Abdullah Hussein
The Weight of Heaven
The White Moghuls by William Dalrymple
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami
The Woman In The Dunes by Kobo Abe
The Wrong Way Home
The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin
This Way to the Sugar
Tiger Hills,” by Sarita Mandanna
Tigers, Frogs, and Rice Cakes Holt, Daniel (translator)
To Live Yu Hua
Toss of a Lemon
Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in
Asia” by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac
Transforming India: Challenges to the World’s Largest Democracy
Sumantra Bose
Translating Mo’Um
Turkestan Solo – Ella Maillart
Two Lives”
Under Heaven (Guy Gavriel Kay
Uprock Headspin Scramble and Dive
Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein
Waiting’ by Ha Jin
War Talk”
Way to Go” by Upamanyu Chatterjee
What Makes You Not a Buddhist by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse
When Red is Black Qiu Xiaolong
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Wolf Totem | Jiang Rong (Lü Jiamin)
Woodcutter and Tiger Brother Rhee, Nami
Writing on the Wall: China and the West in the 21st Century by Will
Hutton
Yoko by Rosemary Wells
Yoshi’s Feast Kajikawa, Kimiko
Zen Shorts by John Muth
Zero Hour in Phnom Penh – Christopher Moore

The 40 Best Asian Books

The Top 40 Asian Books

40.) A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

39.) Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

38.) Dim Sum for Everyone! by Grace Lin

37.) Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry

36.) Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say

35.) Greetings from Bury Park: Race Religion and Rock and Roll by Sarfraz Mansoor

34.) Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

33.) Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee

32.) Temptations of the West – How to be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond by Pankaj Mishra

31.) The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang

30.) The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi

29.) Three Sisters by Bi Feiyu

28.) Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear by Lensey Namioka, illustrated by Kees de Kiefte

27.) The Namesake: A Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri

26.) Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew X. Pham

25.) Count Your Way through China by Jim Haskins

24.) D Is for Dragon Dance by Ying Chang Compestine, illustrated by Yong Sheng Xuan

23.) First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung

22.) Lon Po Po by Ed Young

21.) Londonstani by Gautam Malkani

20.) Makers of Modern India Edited by Ramachandra Guha

19.) Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta

18.) Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron

17.) Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

16.) The Girl In The Picture: The Story of Kim Phuc, The Photograph, and the Vietnam War by Denise Chong

15.) The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia by Peter Hopkirk

14.) The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

13.) The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid

12.) The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

11.) Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

10.) A Gesture Life by Chang-Rae Lee

9.) A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam

8.) Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy #1) by Amitav Ghosh

7.) The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

6.) The Beach by Alex Garland

5.) Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid

4.) Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra

3.) Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

2.) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

1.) In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin

The 400 Additional Books Appearing on a Single List

The 32 “Best Asian” Article Sources Arranged by Date Published

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