“Disappoint Me” by Nicola Dinan
Nicola Dinan presents a much-needed update on finding love in London as a 30-something in this follow-up to her brilliant 2023 debut novel, Bellies.
“Early Southeast Asia: From First Humans to First Civilizations” by Charles Higham
Quite a lot of archaeological water, to say nothing of history writing, has flowed under the bridge since Early Southeast Asia’s first edition in 2014.
“Rising Sons” by Kavery Nambisan
Though Kavery Nambisan‘s new family saga Rising Sons skips across towns and cities before ending in the palatial bungalows of Central Delhi, its roots lie in a mostly dry village west of Mysore, where “mud is life.” This is the home of the Ai, the natives of the land before Hindus— bringing with them caste…
“In Praise of Floods” by James C Scott
In Praise of Floods is the final book by James C Scott, a renowned anthropologist and political scientist, published posthumously after he died in 2024. Much of Scott’s earlier work has focused on agrarian politics and acts of political resistance, this is a rather different book, focusing instead on the life history of a river,…
“Water Moon” by Samantha Sotto Yambao
Set in an unmarked pawnshop tucked behind a ramen restaurant, Filipino author Samantha Sotto Yambao’s Water Moon revolves around clients who pawn their choices—sometimes ones they don’t even remember making. What is life, after all, if not a series of choices? The very act of pawning a choice leaves a void; choices—it turns out—are fragments…
“May You Have Delicious Meals” by Junko Takase
At first glance, the premise of Junko Takase’s Akutagawa-Prize-winning novel May You Have Delicious Meals seems like the set-up for a romantic comedy. Nitani, Ashikawa, and Oshio work together in the sales division of a company. Nitani normally dates timid, feminine women like Ashikawa. Nitani and Ashikawa start a relationship. Sometimes Nitani spends his evenings…
“White Mulberry” by Rosa Kwon Easton
Miyoung has left her home in Japanese-occupied Korea to join her older sister in Kyoto to study. As what would be World War 2 begins to loom, and anti-Korean sentiment rises, Miyoung is caught between the need to pass as Japanese and a romance with an activist.
“The City and Its Uncertain Walls” by Haruki Murakami
The City and Its Uncertain Walls is Haruki Murakami’s fifteenth novel since his first, Hear the Wind Sing, published in 1979. His most recent is unmistakeably his, unmistakeably an addition to his body of work and his own special brand of magic realism as practiced by the South American writers Jorges Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar,…
“The Penguin Book of Korean Short Stories”, edited by Bruce Fulton
One of the publisher’s most recent of its national anthologies, The Penguin Book of Korean Short Stories provides portrayals of the country in the years 1905 to 1945, when the nation was under imperial Japanese rule, as well as glimpses of life in the Republic of Korea (ROK, aka South Korea), which came into existence…
“The South” by Tash Aw
A trip down south turns out to be more life-changing than a family getaway in this passionate story of sexual awakening set in late 1990s Malaysia. The novel is the first in a planned quartet which follows the Lim family and their struggles with racism, gender, sexuality and, most importantly, inter-generational conflict.
“Snowy Day and Other Stories” by Lee Chang-dong
For fans of Korean film, the uncompromising film director Lee Chang-dong needs little introductions. With a brief but powerful filmography of six films made between 1997 and 2018, he has braved controversial topics to critical acclaim. Burning, his 2018 comeback film after an eight-year hiatus, was shortlisted for an Oscar and won numerous other awards….
“The Gujaratis: A Portrait of a Community” by Salil Tripathi
Does the world need a 700-page book about one people within the Indian Union? Considering that Gujaratis number 65 to 70 million, you could argue that they deserve as much attention as, say, the French. Indeed, Ted Zeldin’s “The History of French Passions” only covers the period 1848-1945 in twice as many pages. Western readers…
“More Swindles from the Late Ming: Sex, Scams, and Sorcery” by Zhang Yingyu
Some years back as a graduate student enrolled in a mandatory DEI training for college teaching, I distinctly recall raising a question about dealing with the unabashed misogyny, depictions of sexual violence and child abuse bursting out of the primary sources so often used in the history classroom. Encountering More Swindles from the Late Ming:…
“The Great Transformation: China’s Road from Revolution to Reform” by Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian
China’s history under the Communist Party has been demarcated, like geological ages, into neat, self-contained phases. There is the Great Leap Forward (1958-62); the Cultural Revolution (1966-76); and Reform and Opening (December 1978-1989). The bits outside these branded groups of years, including the first nine years of CCP rule, can feel a little fuzzy, while…
“A Passage to Siam: A Story of Forbidden Love” by V Vinicchayakul
Ukrainian-born nurse Kateryna Ivanonva Desnytska became a Thai princess at the turn of the 20th century as wife of the Siamese prince Chakrabongse Bhuvanath. This story, with echoes of that of King Chulalongkorn and his English tutor Anna Leonowens (immortalized in The King and I) , has obvious potential for artistic adaptation: it was made…
