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I moved from Europe to Singapore in early 2024. As my perspective on Asia has always been very French- and US-centric, I wanted to get a better understanding of the local history and culture. So, for each country I traveled to, I read books from or about that country.
If you want to read more from this part of the world or are just looking for your next read, here are some of the books I've read along with a few thoughts.
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Ratings below are from 1 (minimum) to 5 (maximum). ⭐️ = how i would rate the book (story, writing, characters, etc) 📍 = how useful the book is to learn about this area of the world
Red Sorghum Mo Yan
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📍📍📍📍📍
It’s the story of a field of Sorghum in the Gaomi region, shades of gold, green and red under the blue sky. The field is the witness, of love, of violence, and of history. The field tells the story of the Japanese invasion and the civil war in China. The field tells the cruelty of men and dogs, intertwined by fate.
I loved this book so much, it’s beautiful and incredibly well written, with careful attention to photography. It also helped me understand that part of history much better. It’s a difficult read: it goes into great details when describing violence, so don’t read if this kind of stuff doesn’t sit right with you.
Interestingly, as the narrator tells the story of his grandparents, the only stories that are told are the ones that were witnessed. This adds an interesting aspect to the storytelling, making everything more real.
The three-body problem Liu Cixin
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📍📍📍
This is a sci-fi story, starting during the cultural revolution in China. After witnessing her father being eliminated for his “reactionary” ideas, Wenjie is forced to work in a secret military base looking to communicate with extraterrestrial lifeforms.
The book alternates the main story as well as events taking place in a highly sophisticated Virtual Reality video game, with a mystery slowly unfolding. Although I found certain parts of the book a bit over the top, I enjoyed the read overall, and found the story asked interesting questions, about loyalty to one’s species, or who actually serves mankind.
A concise Chinese-English dictionary for lovers Xiaolu Guo
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📍📍
20yo Zhuang leaves her small town in China for a year in London, where she will learn the English language, but also love, loneliness, and her way into adulthood.
This book is her diary: every chapter is a new word, and the experience that made her learn this word. And throughout the book, her English improves. This part, particularly, is incredibly touching, because you get to know her, only progressively, as she finds her language.
Overall, it’s both a hilarious and deeply sad journey. I found the construction brilliant for storytelling, and cleverly executed.
Remaining reading list:
The borrowed Chan Ho-Kei
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📍📍📍
Follow the history of Kwan Chun-dok, a fictional super genius detective who can solve the most intricated cases using only half an evidence. The story is told backwards, from 2013 to 1967, imprinted with Hong Kong’s history, especially the transformation of the police.
The Borrowed is a hyper fast-paced thriller, with over-the-top plot twists, dramatic revelations, convoluted ramifications, and straight forward but wholesome characters. It’s not perfect but it’s definitely delicious and you’ll have a lot of fun overall if you don’t take it too seriously.
Remaining reading list:
Norwegian wood Haruki Murakami
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📍📍📍
Norwegian wood is a moody book about a boy turning 20, trying to understand love, sex, and death. And ultimately growing up. While i found parts of it well done (e.g. depiction of mental illness), i don’t think i’d recommend it.
On the positive, i found it to be a very true book about what breaks a brain, the sneaky and slow way, or the sharp and deep way, about how hurt people hurt people (in so many ways), about how love feels conditional on healing, and how scary it is to need people when all you can do is be alone.
But it really felt like a story narrated by a secondary character, a character so empty that others crave to fill him with stories. The only notable thing about him might be that he is turning 20.
How do you live? Genzaburo Yoshino
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📍📍
Copper is a 15-yo Japanese boy, second shortest in his class, gets good grades, and has very good friendships.
The book interleaves Copper’s life experiences (a theory of humans as particles, a naive adoration for Napoleon, an unforgivable mistake) with his uncle’s diary of learnings, reconnecting these experiences to science, history, and philosophy.
It’s an interesting read, it helped me understand Japanese culture a bit more, and i can imagine the extra importance of this text at the time of writing (1937). A lot of it is wholesome and the writing is very playful which i liked.
I found it a bit too simplistic at times, but i guess that also makes sense granted the main character is so young.
Earthlings Sayaka Murata
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📍📍📍📍
I picked up this book because I was looking for a fun and light read. This book is NOT that, do not trust the joyful and childish cover!
Earthlings speaks about broken humans, in Japan, who decide to live out of the world, and follow their instincts and desires fully, progressively disconnecting more and more from societal and social expectations.
It is a very strange and weird book, and while the topic is interesting, the detailed portraying of child ab*se and cannibalism was a bit much for me.
Butter Asako Yuzuki
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📍📍📍📍
A woman is accused of seducing men, exploiting them for their money, and murdering them. But the twist is: She enjoys eating, and she is fat. How can such a woman be a seductive figure in a country that pressures women, and their bodies, so strictly?
The book presents sexism in Japan, the control of women, the loneliness of men. It’s an interesting read, and I really enjoyed the more nuanced and sometimes paradoxical conversations on feminism.
Remaining reading list: