I’ve read most of Amy Tan, Pearl S. Buck, Gail Tsukiyama, Ha Jin and Lisa See.Recommends me Asian fiction recommendations
I love Asian fiction so much! I’ve read most of Amy Tan, Pearl S. Buck, Gail Tsukiyama, Ha Jin and Lisa See. Can anyone recommend some authors along the same lines as those above. Any favorite books?
Have you read any Haruki Murakami?
Dance Dance Dance is one of my favorites and his short story The Second Bakery Attack
@Pamela I just got 2 books from him because I’ve heard such good things! I’m looking forward to reading them.
@Tina he’s very different. Be patient. His writing is weird.
I didn’t know that I may have a tough time with that.
@Tina the thing about Murakami is how strange his stories feel. As if everything happening is in a dream. I’ve never read writing that felt like his. It’s incredible if only for that reason.
My book of 2018 was Pachinko by @Min. Phenomenal!
@Stephanie reading that now !
@Porsche You will consider it time well spent. I’ve put it in every person’s hands I can. She is Pearl S Buck, yet even better.
No higher praise I can give.
I also enjoyed Pachinko. It earned one of the few five star rating I gave out in 2018.
Little fireflies everywhere.
Celeste ng
I’m a fan of Japanese literature . Other than Haruki Murakami , you can also try Yoko Ogawa, Banana Yoshimoto, Natsuo Kirino, Keigo Higashino, Ryu Murakami, Kazuo Ishiguro etc. Also, try Indian authors if you haven’t yet. I recommend Jhumpa Lahiri, Amitav Ghosh, Rohinton Mistry.
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki was wonderful. I also love Tsukiyama and Tan. If you could stretch to Indian Literature there are so many amazing authors.
@Brenda I came here to recommend this! So gold.
The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford was fabulous
Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet…
All three books by Jamie Ford are fabulous. Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Love and Other Consolation Prizes, and Songs of Willow Frost. Beautiful books by a wonderful author. And Hotel may be a Broadway musical soon!
The Expatriates or The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee
try james clavell.
Julie Otsuka has 2 great books
Have you read Pachinko? Can’t think of the author at this moment. I love all of the authors you’ve mentioned. I think my favorite is Lisa See.
Balzac and the little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Siji (?sp) was a great read for me. Also, The Girl Who Played Go. (Don’t recall the author ).
Korean writer Han Kang’s The Vegetarian is a superficially easy read, but I find myself thinking about it again and again two years after reading it. Winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2016.
I have found some Japanese books suffer in translation. Haruki Murakami has enjoyed crossover success because he deeply understands nuances of translation — he has translated English works into Japanese.
Have you read anything by Gish Jen? Lisa Ko also has a good novel. You listed several of my personal favorite authors, so it’s hard to come up with different ones. Colin Cotterill has an interesting detective series set in Laos that I really enjoyed. Also The Late Homecomers by Kalia Kang, a couple books by Kien Huynh.
The Rice Mother and The Japanese Lover, both by Rani Manika. Beautiful books but I loved The Rice Mother best.
Lisa See ❤️
I have enjoyed reading Pearl Buck, Amy Tan and Lisa See.
Helen Hoang
Read Pachinko next.
I agree – Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Lisa See and Celeste Ng.
@Lindsay
@Terri I have this and will send it with Lindsay?
Ahhhhh!!!! Looks good Julie!!!!
@Julie that’s just what I recommended above. Such a beautiful book! Definitely had me crying in parts and I’m not a cryer. You should try ‘The Japanese Lover’ as well.
@Alice Yes, I saw that as I read this thread and remembered I had the book but have not read it yet— so glad for the recommendation!??
Unbound by John Shors, Paper Wife by Laila Ibrahim, Chasing China; A Daughter’s Quest for Truth
by Kay Bratt, In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner, books by Renita D’Silva, and a lot more.
I have an author I live because he writes mysteries post-Cultural revolution, and shows the effects on how the Chinese live at the same time you solve the mystery. I’ll look it up in a bit.
Older. Historical, but quite good: Bette Bao Lord
Janie Lang is absolutely amazing.
The Binding Chair by Kathryn Harrison
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker. One of my all time favorites!
Try indian. Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is really good.
Hye-Young Pyun (The Hole), Chang-Rae Lee (On Such a Full Sea), Soji Shimada (Tokyo Zodiac Murders)
And, not an asian author, but asian mythology… The Melancholy of Mechagirl by Catherynne M Valente. Beautiful stories.
The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison [Inspector Shan Tao Yun mysteries about Tibet]…The Salaryman’s Wife by Sujata Massey [Rei Shimura mysteries about a Japanese American living in Tokyo Book 1]…The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill [Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery series #1]…The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones… The Red Pavilion: A Judge Dee Mystery by Van Gulick…
Nicole Mones! I was going to mention Lost in Translation by her, too (not at all like the movie), and A Cup of Light.
I’ve enjoyed Sujata Massey’s books —
Song of the Sun God by Shankari Chandran, Chinaman by @Shehan, Island of a Thousand Mirrors by @Nayomi
I don’t like her but so many do, Lisa See
Crazy Rich Asians series by Kevin Kwon
“The Amazing Racist”, “Panther”, “Loyal Stalkers” by Chhimi Tenduf-La
I read primarily Indian authors … along with Arundhati Roy, already recommended, I would champion Anuradha Roy (no relation), Vikram Seth, Manil Suri, Anita and Kiran Desai …so many more.
I read a lot of Indian and Asian authors. I’ll note these down. Thanks!
The garden of evening mists
@Jane On my TBR list! Man Booker finalist 2012.
The inheritance of loss
Tan Twan Eng , a Malaysian author
Sister of my heart by Chithra Divakaruni
I so appreciate everyone’s input ! please keep them coming! – this is so much better than googling “authors like “Amy Tan”? you guys are awesome ! I’m so excited to check out each and every last one of these suggestions ❤️❤️❤️
Qiu Xiaolong Detective Chen series.
Ahhh, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan was so good.
Danielle Prenzlow Escene loved it! My whole book club did.
Wild Swan.
Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston.
I also enjoyed The Moon in the Palace by Weina Dai Randel. Not sure what everyone else thinks of these??
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang is on my 1,001 Books I Must Read Before I Die list.
@Yuki oh yes, I so enjoyed that book too.
Rohinton Mistry is an amazing author. Try his books, A Fine Balance and Family Matters. I find Salman Rushdie very difficult but if you like to try, I recommend Midnight’s Children. Others that you might want to try: Trail of Broken Wings by Sejal Badani, A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shibiku (I bought this but have not read yet), The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa & Totto-Chan: The Little Girl At The Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi.
@Maheswari Midnight’s Children is extraordinary, excellent read!
@Yuki it is but it was difficult for me. His writing is very unique. Very poetic.
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nyugen is another good book.
ditto
Jhumpa Lahiri. I love her short stories!
You are the only other person I know who likes–or even is familiar with–Gail Tsukiyama. I’m a huge fan of her books! There are others (also some terrific women writers from India), but I’m at a loss for their names at the moment. Sorry . . .
@Betsy I love Gail Tsukiyama.
It must be about time for a new book from her, yes?
Pachinko
Natsuo Kirino
Memoirs of a Gesha is a beautiful history of Japan during the occupation and modernization. The Savanger’s Daughters series is about a trash picker in China who adopts thrown away children. It’s filled with so much heart and the strong family ties. The Poppy War, a fantasy retelling of China’s bloody 12th century and mythology
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, covers three generations of a Korean family living in Japan,
Memoirs of a Geisha is an excellent book by Arthur Golden. I recommended it to a British friend “who doesn’t read” but who lived in Japan one year, and he devoured the book.
@Yuki I read that! I loved that book !
@Porsche Did someone already mention Japanese-American writer Ruth Ozeki? I enjoyed her A Tale for the Time Being. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker and NBCC awards.
@Yuki yes someone has. I can’t wait to check it out.
@Yuki that’s my favorite book.
Chang-Rae Lee is a first gen Korean-American writer you might like. His first novel Native Speaker won the PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award among others.
Paper Daughter by M. Elaine Mar and Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok. I found The House on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, a bit slow for me, but others here a raving about it.
Silence (1966) by Shūsaku Endō is an excellent book. Written and translated with great clarity, this novel tells the story of a 17th century Portuguese Jesuit who arrives in Japan when Kakure Kirishitan–“hidden Christians”–are being persecuted and forced to apostatize by feudal leaders.
Amitav Ghosh, Kiran Nagarkar, Upamanyu Chatterji, R.K.Narayan
Porsche, all the writers you mention are American writers. Are you specifically after people who write about the Asian-American experience?
@Yuki no it doesn’t have to be the Asian-American experience. Most of the those novels aside from one or two books weren’t actually. Writers were just American. But I love it all! I’m fascinated by the culture
@Porsche Okay, just curious because no one has mentioned the “classic” Japanese writers like Natsume Sōseki, Kenzaburo Ōe, Yasunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima, Junichiro Tanizaki. I have not read them all. My personal preference is for 19th c British and Russian lit. Lol. I love Japanese-British writer Kazuo Ishiguro — he is foremost a British writer, but with some Japanese sensibilities I suppose. Never Let Me Go is a favorite novel.
I agree.
Regardless of the foreigners language I find that I enjoy reading their translated versions are the versions that they write originally in English. I know quite a few from China who arrived here and wrote and spoke English better than we do in less than 4 years.
I recently read Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang, very thought provoking.
Thank you so much for this post! I’ve added a bunch to my TBR list. All of my favorites have already been mentioned!
@Missy right! I was just telling my husband how much this post has blessed me ! So many recommendations, so many I hadn’t heard of! ❤️ I’m beyond excited ?
Thrity Umrigar. Excellent writer. Fiction, usually set in India.
The Sleepwalkers Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacobs- she presents Indian culture in the US. SO may not fit your criteria, but a beautiful book nonetheless.
I very much enjoyed Empress Orchid by Anchee Min.
currently reading this and loving it
Pearl S Buck also wrote a novel based on the last empress.
@Steve oooh thanks ill have to check it out
The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki is a great read…
A thousand splendid suns,the kite runner