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The Gift of Rain

The Gift of Rain
  • Author(s): Tan Twan Eng
  • Location(s): Malaysia (Malaya), Penang
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): Before WW2 onwards

This is the story of Philip Hutton, as he grapples with his guilt and pain and the choices he had to make when the Japanese attacks Malaya and his home of Penang

The Glass Palace

The Glass Palace
  • Author(s): Amitav Ghosh
  • Location(s): Burma (Myanmar), India, Malaysia (Malaya)
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): Second half 19th century onwards

Beginning in 1885, with the British invasion of Mandalay and the capture of the Burmese king and queen, and encompassing over 100 years to modern-day India and Burma (Myanmar), Amitav Ghosh has created in The Glass Palace a monument...

The Godfather of Kathmandu

The Godfather of Kathmandu
  • Author(s): John Burdett
  • Location(s): Bangkok
  • Genre(s): Thriller
  • Era(s): Modern

Number 4 in the Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep novels by John Burdett.He is summoned to investigate the most shocking murder of his career. Solving it could mean a promotion but, still reeling from a personal tragedy, Sonchai is more interested...

The Great Railway Bazaar

The Great Railway Bazaar
  • Author(s): Paul Theroux
  • Location(s): Central Asia, South East Asia
  • Era(s): 20th Century

The Great Railway Bazaar is Paul Theroux’s account of his epic journey by rail through Asia. Filled with evocative names of legendary train routes – the Direct-Orient Express, the Khyber Pass Local, the Delhi Mail from Jaipur, the Golden...

The Harmony Silk Factory

The Harmony Silk Factory
  • Author(s): Tash Aw
  • Location(s): Malaysia (Malaya)
  • Era(s): 1930s/1940s

Set in Malaysia in the 1930s and 40s, with the rumbling of the Second World War in the background and the Japanese about to invade, The Harmony Silk Factory is the story of four people: Johnny, an infamous Chinaman...

The Hidden Force

The Hidden Force
  • Author(s): Louis Couperus
  • Location(s): Java
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): End of 19th Century

A withering indictment of Dutch colonialism, Louis Couperus’s The Hidden Force is a vivid portrait of fin-de-siècle moral and social decay. A mystical Javan prince and a promiscuous wife are twin challenges to Dutch Commissioner Van Oudijck’s seemingly impregnable...

The House on Dream Street

The House on Dream Street
  • Author(s): Dana Sachs
  • Location(s): Hanoi
  • Genre(s): Autobiography/Memoirs
  • Era(s): Modern

Dana Sachs travels to Hanoi at a time when tourists were hardly known. This is the story of an American trying to learn about Vietnames culture, conflicted with being in an American in the post war era. A truly...

The Interpreter From Java

The Interpreter From Java
  • Author(s): Alfred Birney
  • Location(s): Netherlands, Indonesia
  • Genre(s): Autobiography/Memoirs, Fiction
  • Era(s): World War II & Present Day

Alan Nolan discovers his father’s memoirs and learns the truth about the violent man he despised. In this unsparing family history, Alan distils his father’s life in the Dutch East Indies into one furious utterance. He reads about his...

The King’s Last Song

The King’s Last Song
  • Author(s): Geoff Ryman
  • Location(s): Cambodia
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): 12th Century and Modern

A great king brings peace to a warring nation. Centuries later his writings will bring hope to those facing the tragic legacy of modern Cambodia’s bloody history. When archaeologists discover a book written on gold leaves at Angkor Wat,...

The Man from Saigon

The Man from Saigon
  • Author(s): Marti Leimbach
  • Location(s): Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): 1960s

Susan Gifford is a female correspondent working in Saigon. Together with Son, a Vietnames photographer, she covers the war. One morning there is an ambush and they are captured by three Vietcong. Hiding in the jungle they are threatened...

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