Tess Reads Asia

My goal is to read at least 1 book set in each country of Asia. I will begin with books read in 2021.

Afghanistan
Armenia
Azerbaijan

Bahrain
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei

Cambodia

China
The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang
Mao's Last Dancer by Cunxin Li

Cyprus

Georgia

India
One Grain of Rice by Demi
Rani Laxmibai: Warrior-Queen of Jhansi

Indonesia

Iran
Iraq

IsraelIsrael
Lionheart takes place more than 50% at Jaffa (Tel Aviv)

Japan
Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura
Jordan

Kazakhstan
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan

Laos
Lebanon
Malaysia
Maldives
Mongolia
Myanmar (formerly Burma)

Nepal
North Korea

Oman

Pakistan
Palestine
Philippines

Qatar

Russia
Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy

Saudi Arabia
Singapore
South Korea
Sri Lanka
The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon
Syria

Taiwan
Tajikistan
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Turkey
Turkmenistan

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Uzbekistan

Vietnam

Yemen

Mao's Last Dancer by Cunxin Li is the memoir of Li's early life from his small village in China to his defection to the west to become a permanent member of the Houston ballet. The prose is not great, but the story is stellar.

Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura a superb read about a small Japanese village, probably medieval. It's one of those books where the last sentence can be interpreted in two ways! Recommended 180 pages 5 stars

Sounds like a great challenge as there are so many great books you can choose from.

Just with Japan you've chosen what is, in my opinion, one of the best books from Japan. However, I would consider the plague part to be a huge spoiler to the book as it comes at the end and basically seals the fate of the village. I would put that under a spoiler tag in case others want to read the book, which they should!

Looking forward to your upcoming choices.

I wasn't really sure how to categorize The Abduction of Seraglio, which is the libretto from an opera by Mozart. Most of the action takes place in Turkey. At that time Turkey was part of the Ottoman Empire, so I've decided to place this read in Asia, rather than Europe. This was a good read about Kostanze, a Spanish noble-woman, who, with two servants was abducted and sent to Turkey and sold as slaves. After read the about 66 pages, I listened to the opera in German (I could not find it in English), about 65 minutes.

I completed The Bridges of Toko-Ri by James Michener. This was the story of a military/naval maneuver during the Korean War.

I read The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon by Sir Samuel Baker White and Theodore Roosevelt IV. A depressing elephant hunt in what is now Sri Lanka.

For India you could read 'A Perfect Balance' by Rohinton Mistry

For Yemen 'The Zanzibar Chest' by Aidan Hartley
Japan: 'Geisha of Gion' by Mineko Iwasaki or 'Memoirs of a Geisha' by Arthur Golden
For Afghanistan the books by Khaled Hosseini seem te be the obvious choice e.g. 'The Kite Runner' ; 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'
China: 'Snow Flower and the Secret Fan' by Lisa See or 'Chronicle of a Blood Merchant' by Yu Hua.
Turkey: one of the books by Orhan Pamuk e.g. 'My Name is Red'