BOOKS BY ASIAN AUTHORS

    

I discovered my love for Asian books after reading the novel by Sohn Won-Pyung called Almond which was recommended by RM from BTS. This blog has 10 Asian books that I love.

In this blog, you will find novels by Asian authors from all genres. Although I have not read every single one of these novels, I can still ensure that you will enjoy reading them. Hope you find the novel you would love you read.  

Here is a list of novels that I will talk about in this blog:

(Feel free to skip to the novel you like)

1.    CONVENIENCE STORE WOMEN

2.    KIM JIYOUNG BORN 1982 

3.    THE VEGETARIAN

4.    KAFKA ON THE SHORE

5.    AN EMBER IN THE ASHES

6.    MEMORY POLICE

7.    I HAVE THE RIGHT TO DESTROY MYSELF.

8.    SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN

9.    MALGUDI DAYS

10. PACHINKO

1. CONVENIENCE STORE WOMEN

BY Sayaka Murata, Ginny Tapley Takemori (Translator)

 

This novel follows a character name Keioko Fufukura who always had difficulty socializing but when she turned eighteen and started working at a convenience store, things changed, she found it easy to interact with customers. She has been working at that store for eighteen, and she has been satisfied with her job. However, her family and people around her don`t think so, they constantly pressure her to get married and find a better job.

 

I had a great time reading this book. First of all, the protagonist has a different perspective of the world from mine, which intrigued me. I’m an ambitious person and I always want to do something more. So, it was quite refreshing to read about a person who has a completely different thinking process and still finds similarities among us.

 

2. KIM JIYOUNG BORN 1982

BY Cho Nam-ju

One of the most notable novels of the year, hailed by both critics and K-pop stars alike, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows one woman’s psychic deterioration in the face of rampant misogyny. In a tidy apartment on the outskirts of Seoul, millennial “everywoman” Kim Jiyoung spends her days caring for her infant daughter. But strange symptoms appear: Jiyoung begins to impersonate the voices of other women, dead and alive. As she plunges deeper into this psychosis, her concerned husband sends her to a psychiatrist. Jiyoung narrates her story to this doctor—from her birth to parents who expected a son to elementary school teachers who policed girls’ outfits to male co-workers who installed hidden cameras in women’s restrooms. But can her psychiatrist cure her, or even discover what truly ails her? 

 

The main reason that made me pick this book was that it was recommended by RM of BTS and it was amazing. You will find yourself weeping and infuriated at the same time.

This novel by Cho Nam-ju shows the experiences of a common woman at school, work, and with family and hits the right spot.

 

And for those who are interested, there is a Korean movie based on this novel. You can check it out. It’s called Kim Ji-young: Born in 1982

3. THE VEGETARIAN

BY Han Kang

Yeong-hye a homemaker suddenly decided to become vegetarian after a series of nightmares involving animal slaughtering started to torment her. But it was not just that, she also started to exhibit strange behavior. In a country where societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision to embrace a more “plant-like” existence is a shocking act of subversion. And as her passive rebellion manifests in ever more extreme and frightening forms, scandal, abuse, and estrangement begin to send Yeong-hye spiraling deep into the spaces of her fantasy. In a complete metamorphosis of both mind and body, her now dangerous endeavor will take Yeong-hye—impossibly, ecstatically, tragically—far from her once-known self altogether.

 

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that this “International Booker prize” nominated book is a piece of Art. As it explores the conflict between our two selves: one greedy, primitive; the other accountable to the family and society. It is told from three different perspectives; one of her family, another of her brother-in-law, and lastly from the manager of a cosmetic store.

 

4. KAFKA ON THE SHORE

By Haruki Murakami

Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle—yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.

 

If you’re talking about books by Asian authors and not mentioning a book by Murakami, then I consider that blog incomplete.

 

Kafka On the Shore Quotes.

1. “If you remember me, then I don’t care if everyone else forgets.”

2. “Memories are what warm you up from the inside. But they’re also what tear you apart.”

5. AN EMBER IN THE ASHES

BY Sabaa Tahir

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.

Ember in the ashes Follows a girl called Laia, whose brother has been arrested for treason, and her family has been killed. She decided to rescue her brother. For that, she made a deal with the rebels, who promised to rescue her brother if she risked her life to spy for them from within the empire’s greatest military academy. Laia disguises herself as a slave of the military school’s commandant, known for her ruthless, abusive, and tormenting nature.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, it’s most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

This dark fantasy will take you on a wild journey.

 6. THE MEMORY POLICE

BY Yoka Ogawa, Stephen Snyder (Translator)

This dystopian novel is set on an unnamed island on an unnamed coast, where objects disappear physically as well as from people’s memories; like ribbons, roses, birds, calendars, etc. Most of the islanders are not aware of this, they do feel that something is wrong but can’t put their finger on that. However, there are few imbued with the power to recall lost objects. They live under the consent fear of the draconian Memory Police, who ensure that nobody remembers the disappeared object.

Our unnamed protagonist who is a novelist found out that her editor can remember lost things so to protect him from the memory police hides him. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.

A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.

 7. I HAVE THE RIGHT TO DESTROY MYSELF

BY Kim Young-ha

This novella is set in mid-90s Seoul, told from the perspective of a shadowy man who suggests suicide to his clients. C and K are two brothers who are in love with the same woman “Judith” who is a client of this man.

This story is about a society where death appears as a desirable option and also about the people who want to keep living.

 

8. SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN

BY Shelley Parker-Chan

This historical fiction novel reimagines the rise to power of the Ming Dynasty’s founder emperor. In an unknown village in china, two siblings were fated, a son of greatness and a daughter of nothing. After her family died in a bandit attack, the daughter took her brother’s identity to Enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

 

 

9. MALGUDI DAYS

BY R. K. Narayan

This book is a collection of short stories by an Indian author set in a fictional Indian village named “Magudi”. Stories revolve around the residents of the village. This novel full of colors would be a volte-face for people who are not fond of short stories.

R. K. Narayan the author describes how in India “the writer has only to look out of the window to pick up a character and thereby a story.” Composed of powerful, magical portraits of all kinds of people, and comprising stories written over almost forty years, Malgudi Days presents Narayan’s imaginary city in full color, revealing the essence of India and the human experience. 

 

10. PACHINKO

BY Min Jin Lee

In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant — and that her lover is married — she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.

 

This story follows the four generations of a Korean family who immigrated to Japan amidst Japanese colonization and political warfare. There is a k-drama based on this novel, if anyone is interested, they can check it out. While researching this book I came across the trailer for its drama. After watching it I became more curious about this novel and it didn’t disappoint.