Translations remained strong in this year’s (as always, subjective) list of books we thought worthy of particular mention, ranging from Chinese, Korean and Japanese, through Tagalog, Hindi, Turkish, French and Spanish and including autobiography, poetry and graphic novels as well as fiction. Non-fiction ranges from history and biography to art and culture. 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 End of August by Yu Miri, translated by Morgan Giles (Japanese)
• The Thorn Puller by Hiromi Ito, translated by Jeffrey Angles (Japanese)
• Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again by Shigeru Kayama, translated by Jeffrey Angles (Japanese) [podcast]
• People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice by Ao Omae, translated by Emily Balistrieri (Japanese)
• Bad Kids by Zijin Chen, translated by Michelle Deeter (Chinese)
• Puppet Flower: A Novel of 1867 Formosa by Yao-Chang Chen, translated by Pao-fang Hsu , Ian Maxwell and Tung-jung Chen (Chinese)
• Owlish by Dorothy Tse, translated by Natascha Bruce (Chinese)
• Whale by Cheon Myeong-Kwan, translated by Chi-Young Kim (Korean)
• Greek Lessons by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won (Korean)
• The Preying Birds by Amado V Hernandez, translated by Danton Remoto (Tagalog)
• Chittacobra by Mridula Garg (Hindi)
• Dying is Easier than Loving by Ahmet Altan, translated by Brendan Freely (Turkish)
• The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu by Augusto Higa Oshiro, translated by Jennifer Shyue (Spanish)
• Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal (French)
• Fractured Soul by Akira Mizubayashi, translated by Alison Anderson (French)

Fiction, short stories

• A History of Burning by Janika Oza
• Sylvia by Maithreyi Karnoor
• The Light at the End of the World by Siddhartha Deb
• Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
• The Hive and the Honey by Paul Yoon
• Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li

Graphic novels

• Okinawa by Susumu Higa. translated by Jocelyne Allen and Andrew Woodrow-Butcher (Japanese)
• Denison Avenue by Christina Wong and Daniel Innes

Children’s

• The House of the Lost on the Cape by Sachiko Kashiwaba, translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa
• My Strange Shrinking Parents by Zeno Sworder (podcast)

Poetry

• Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan
• Mistaken for an Empire: A Memoir in Tongues by Christine Imperial
• A Bad Girl’s Book of Animals by Wong May
• Temple Lamp: Verses on Banaras by Mirza Ghalib, translated by Maaz Bin Bilal (Urdu)
• A Summer Day in the Company of Ghosts: Selected Poems by Wang Yin, translated by Andrea Lingenfelter (Chinese)

History

• The Price of Collapse: The Little Ice Age and the Fall of Ming China by Timothy Brook
• Rome and Persia: The Seven Hundred Year Rivalry by Adrian Goldsworthy
• History of the Caucasus, Volume 2: In the shadow of the Great Powers by Christophe Baumer
• How Asia Found Herself: A Story of Intercultural Understanding by Nile Green
• Dethroned: The Downfall of India’s Princely States by John Zubrzycki (podcast)
• Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Century by Joya Chatterji
• Angels Tapping at the Wine-­Shop’s Door: A History of Alcohol in the Islamic World by Rudi Matthee (podcast)
• Regnum Chinae: The Printed Western Maps of China to 1735 by Marco Caboara (podcast)
• China and Russia: Four Centuries of Conflict and Concord by Philip Snow (podcast)
• Creators of Modern China: 100 Lives from Empire to Republic, 1796-1912, edited by Jessica Harrison-Hall and Julia Lovell

Biography

• Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang
• The War Diary of Asha-san: From Tokyo to Netaji’s Indian National Army, translated from Hindi by Tanvi Srivastava (podcast)

Photography / Art / Culture

• Bombay Talkies: An Unseen History of Indian Cinema edited by Debashree Mukherjee
• The Great Mongol Shahnama by Robert Hillenbrand (podcast)
• Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece by James Fraser, et al.
• Jali: Lattice of Divine Light in Mughal Architecture by Navina Najat Haider
• Revealing the Unseen: New Perspectives on Qajar Art, edited by Gwenaëlle Fellinger and Melanie Gibson
• Breathing Space: Iranian Women Photographers by Anahita Ghabaian

 

Plus this year, two new books by Asian Review of Books contributor.

Books by ARB contributors

• Plains of Discontent: A Political History of Nepal’s Tarai (1743-2019) by Maximillian Mørch (podcast)
• Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China by Susan Blumberg-Kason (podcast)