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“On Thin Ice” by Charlie Walker
Walking through Siberia in the dead of winter may not, on the face of it, sound like a very good idea, yet that is what Charlie Walker intended to do in February 2022. Yakutsk is built on the banks of the Lena River and I would ski-trek northwards along the water’s frozen surface for 1,000…
“The Man Who Stole the Gods” by Matthew Campbell
A New York Times headline from late February read “Cambodia Celebrates the Return of Looted Artifacts From a Tainted Dealer”….
“America, but Bigger” by Mark Kawar
That the US is “imperialistic”, if not necessarily “imperial”, has been a point of political rhetoric my entire life. That,…
“Night Train” by Xu Zechen
Chen Munian is not a murderer. Yet who is he accused of murdering? Why can he not shake off the…
“Chapal Rani, the Last Queen of Bengal” by Sandip Roy
A young, aspiring actor joins an itinerant theatre troupe to perform on makeshift stages in remote villages, traveling from place…
“Witness to Korea, 1945-47: The Unfolding of an Authoritarian Regime” by Frank Hoffmann and Mark E Caprio
Histories of the Korean War (1950-1953) published in the United States have been surprisingly numerous for a conflict known as America’s “forgotten war”, but few books have appeared in English on the division and occupation of Korea by the Soviet Union and the United States (1945-48). Fewer still have focused on what happened in Korea…
“Babylon, South Dakota” by Tom Lin
Tom Lin’s debut novel, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, paid homage to the American Western, with a Chinese twist, and his lyrical writing style is well suited to the cowboy culture of the American Wild West. He’s back with Babylon, South Dakota, a novel just as colourful as his first. Where his first novel…
“Swell” by Son Bo-mi
A teenage boy goes to a concert of his favourite rock band with his father only to become a victim…
“Fortress of the Forgotten Ones” by Fahmida Riaz
Karl Marx famously argued that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Fahmida Riaz’s…
“The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo” by Zen Cho
While it can certainly be awkward for book reviewers to meet authors after having panned their books, these are not…
“The Unrepentant” by Sharmini Aphrodite
Rich in detail and the range of characters it features, The Unrepentant is as an impressive collection of 14 short…
“Rat Race” by Mamta Kalia
Rat Race is a slice-of-life story following characters in a modern, capitalistic India as they balance the demands of ambition and family. While originally written by Mamta Kalia in Hindi as Daud at the turn of the millennium, and possibly qualifying as a “modern classic”, Jerry Pinto’s 2026 translation still aptly encapsulates many elements of…
“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…
“Becoming Allies: Civil Liberties Activism in India” by Ankita Pandey
What motivates individuals to stand up against injustices that don’t personally affect them? Becoming Allies explores a vital but often overlooked dimension of social movements: the role of those who…
“Lahore After Modernism” by Chris Moffat
Lahore After Modernism is a pioneering study of architecture and the politics of construction, destruction and conservation in urban Pakistan. In the decades after independence in 1947, architects in Pakistan…
“Earthly Playing Field” by Radhika Singh
Roma has a steady job, a mortgage, and a surrogate family in Queens. But as she moves through her daily routines, the powerful Empire that rules her world bares its…
“High Lands, Pure Earth: Place Making, History, and Urban Transitions on the Tibetan Plateau” by Eveline Washul
High Lands, Pure Earth foregrounds Tibetan experiences of urban transitions in China’s late-reform period. In the 21st century, China’s accelerated urbanization has transformed the Tibetan Plateau. Yet Tibetan urban experiences…
“Koreatown, NYC: The Consumption of a Transnational Brand” by Jinwon Kim
In the past decade, Korean entertainment has gained global recognition, with Korean movies and TV shows winning Oscars and Emmys, and K-Pop groups becoming wildly popular. In Manhattan, Koreatown has…
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