This year’s subjective list of books we thought worthy of particular mention over the past 12 months: fiction (in translation and not), short stories, graphic novels, history, memoir, travel, photography, literature, culture, politics, society and children’s books covering Asia from the Pacific to the Black Sea, from the Russian Far East to India and Caucasus.
The year refers to the date of review, not of publication. Click on the title for the review. Some also have podcasts.
Fiction in translation
- The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura
- Terminal Boredom: Stories by Izumi Suzuki
- An I-Novel by Mizumura Minae
- Em by Kim Thúy
- Lemon by Kwon Yeo-sun
- Shoko’s Smile: Stories by Choi Eunyoung
- Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge
- Whisper by Chang Yu-Ko
- The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei
- Monkey King: Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en, Julia Lovell
- The Drunkard by Liu Yichang
- Orchestra by Vladimir Gonik
- Love in the Days of Rebellion by Ahmet Altan
- Phone Box at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina
Fiction in English
- Hao by Ye Chun
- Savage Tongues by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
- A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam
- China Room by Sunjeev Sahota
- Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen (podcast)
- Sisterhood of Swans by Selma Carvalho
Graphic novels
- The Waiting by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
- The Good Asian by Pornsak Pichetshote (podcast)
- Tono Monogatari by Shigeru Mizuki
Children’s books
- In the Meadow of Fantasies by Hadi Mohammadi (in translation)
- How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino (in translation)
- The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah by Sarah Brennan
- Awesome Art Indonesia: 10 works for the archipelago everyone should know by Yvonne Yanmei Low
Non-fiction: history
- A Venetian at the Mughal Court: The Life and Adventures of Nicolò Manucci by Marco Moneta
- The Tale of the Horse: A History of India on Horseback by Yashaswini Chandra (podcast)
- The Loss of Hindustan: The Invention of India by Manan Ahmed Asif
- China’s Good War: How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism by Rana Mitter
- Market Maoists: The Communist Origins of China’s Capitalist Ascent by Jason M Kelly (podcast)
- History of the Caucasus, Volume 1: At the Crossroads of Empires by Christoph Baumer
- The Last Embassy: The Dutch Mission of 1795 and the Forgotten History of Western Encounters with China by Tonio Andrade (podcast)
- Tokyo Before Tokyo: Power and Magic in the Shogun’s City of Edo by Timon Screech (podcast)
Non-fiction: travel & society
- The Amur River: Between Russia and China by Colin Thubron
- Winter Pasture: One Woman’s Journey with China’s Kazakh Herders by Li Juan
- Klimat: Russia in the Age of Climate Change by Thane Gustafson (podcast)
- Karachi Vice: Life and Death in a Contested City by Samira Shackle (podcast)
Non-fiction: photography, literature, art and culture
- Shop Cats of Hong Kong & China by Marcel Heijnen
- Soviet Seasons by Arseniy Kotov
- North Korea: Like Nowhere Else by Lindsey Miller (podcast)
- The Light of Asia: The Poem That Defined the Buddha by Jairam Ramesh
- Unbinding the Pillow Book: The Many Lives of a Japanese Classic by Gergana Ivanova
- The Book of Charlatans by Jamāl al-DīnʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Jawbarī, translated by Humphrey Davies
- The Thief Who Stole My Heart: The Material Life of Sacred Bronzes from Chola India, 855–1280 by Vidya Dehejia
- Japanese Dress in Detail by Josephine Rout
Non-fiction: biography
- Fifty Sounds by Poly Barton
- Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner
- Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music by Amit Chaudhuri (podcast)
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