This entirely subjective list of 50 highlights from 2024 include reviews of fiction, literature, poetry and non-fiction. Translations remained strong in this year’s list, including literature, poetry and non-fiction, ranging from Chinese, Korean and Japanese, through Thai, Tagalog and Vietnamese to Kazakh, Bengali, Telegu, Arabic, Russian and French. Non-fiction entries ranges from history, biography and memoir to art, photograpy and culture. (The year in question refers to the date of review, not of publication.)
Click on the title for the review. Some also have podcasts. Books by ARB contributors—something of a bumper crop this year—are listed separately.
Fiction
- Behind the Painting by Siburapha, translated from Thai by David Smyth
- Eclipse by Keiichiro Hirano, translated from Japanese by Brent de Chene and Charles De Wolf
- Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki, translated from Japanese by Polly Barton
- Cannibals by Shinya Tanaka, translated from Japanese by Kalau Almony
- The Unfilial: Four Tragic Tales from Modern China by Yao Emei, translated from Chinese by Will Spence, Olivia Milburn, Honey Watson and Martin Ward
- Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa, translated from Japanese by Stephen Snyder
- Silken Gazelles by Jokha Alharthi, translated from Arabic by Marilyn Booth
- Faraway the Southern Sky by Joseph Andras, translated from French by Simon Leser
- Gifted by Suzumi Suzuki, translated from Japanese by Allison Markin Powell
- Water: a Chronicle by Nguyễn Ngọc Tư, translated from Vietnamese by Nguyễn An Lý
- Where the Wind Calls by Samar Yazbek, translated from Arabic by Leri Price
- Elevator in Saigon by Thuân, translated from Vietnamese by Nguyen An Lý
- Ilget: The Three Names of a Life by Alexander Grigorenko, translated from Russian by Christopher Culver
- Takaoka’s Travels by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, translated from Japanese by David Boyd
- Chronicles of a Village by Nguyễn Thanh Hiện, translated by Quyen Nguyen-Hoang
- Souls Left Behind by Fan Wu, translated from Chinese by Honey Watson
- To Hell with Poets by Baqytgul Sarmekova, translated from Kazakh by Mirgul Kali
- dd’s Umbrella by Hwang Jungeun, translated from Korean by e yaewon
- Patterns of the Heart and Other Stories by Choe Myong-ik, translated from Korean by Janet Poole
- A House of Rain and Snow by Srijato Bandopadhyay, translated from Bengali by Maharghya Chakraborty
- Swan Knight by Fumio Takano, translated from Japanese by Sharni Wilson
- The Singularity by Balsam Karam, translated from Swedish by Saskia Vogel
- The Mud of a Century by Yūka Ishii, translated from Japanese by Haydn Trowell
- The Consultant by Im Seong-sun, translated by An Seon Jae
- Vladivostok Circus by Elisa Shua Dusapin, translated from French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
- A Woman of Pleasure by Kiyoko Murata, translated from Japanese by Juliet Winter Carpenter
- The Third Love by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese Ted Goossen
- Yñiga by Glenn Diaz
- Shanghailanders by Juli Min (podcast)
- Batshit Seven by Sheung-King
Poetry
- With My Back to the World: Poems by Victoria Chang
- Enheduana: The Complete Poems of the World’s First Author by Sophus Helle
- A Cha Chaan Teng That Does Not Exist by Derek Chung, translated from Chinese by May Huang
- Theft of a Tree, Nandi Timmana, translated from classical Telegu by Harshita Mruthinti Kamat
Non-Fiction
- Gods, Guns, and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity by Manu S Pillai
- The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World by William Dalrymple
- Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties, and the Making of Wallis Simpson by Paul French
- Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World by David van Reybrouck
- The Dervish Bowl: The Many Lives of Arminius Vambéry by Anabel Loyd
- Laws of the Land: Fengshui and the State in Qing Dynasty by Tristan G Brown
- Skies of Thunder: The Deadly World War II Mission Over the Roof of the World by Caroline Alexander (podcast)
- Judgement at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia by Gary J Bass (podcast)
- A Danger Shared: A Journalist’s Glimpses of a Continent at War by Bill Lascher (podcast)
- The Story of Southeast Asia by Eric Thompson (podcast)
- Koume’s World: The Life and Work of a Samurai Woman Before and After the Meiji Restoration by Simon Partner (podcast)
- Chop Fry Watch Learn: Fu Pei-mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food by Michelle T King (podcast)
- Rental Person Who Does Nothing by Shoji Morimoto, translated from Japanese by Don Knotting
- Japan on a Glass Plate: The Adventure of Photography in Yokohama and Beyond, 1853–1912, Sebastian Dobson
- Silk Roads by Sue Brunning, Luk Yu-Ping and Elisabeth R O’Connell
- Murakami Haruki on Film by Marc Yamada
Books by ARB Contributors
- Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires by David Chaffetz (podcast, excerpt)
- Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China by Susan Blumberg-Kason (podcast)
- When Friends Come From Afar: The Remarkable Story of Bernie Wong and Chicago’s Chinese American Service League by Susan Blumberg-Kason (excerpt)
- Visions of Greater India: Transimperial Knowledge and Anti-Colonial Nationalism, c 1800-1960 by Yorim Spoelder
- The Southern Tour, Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China’s Future by Jonathan Chatwin (podcast)