The Garden of Evening Mists, by Tan Twan Eng. Weinstein Books, 2012
Supreme Court judge Teoh Yun Ling was the sole survivor of a Japanese prisoner of war camp; everyone else, including her sister, was abused and raped and then killed, bodies put in a mass grave. After becoming a lawyer and then judge, she prosecuted the Japanese soldiers that could ( Read more... )

Rainbirds, by Clarissa Goenawan. Soho Press, 2018
Just when Ren Ishida is finishing grad school, his older sister Keiko is murdered. They haven’t seen each other in a long time, but they talk on the phone every week. She has been living in a small town for years and he knows little of her life there. Ren goes to the town to arrange her funeral and ( Read more... )

White Chrysanthemum, by Mary Lynn Brecht. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2018 In 1943, sixteen year old Hana is happy with her life as a newly fledged haenyeo woman, free diving for abalone, urchins, oysters, and more in the waters of Jeju, a small island off by what is now South Korea. All her life, Korea has been under Japanese occupation. Her people are ( Read more... )

Spring Garden, by Tomoka Shibasaki translated by Polly Barton. Pushkin Press, 2014 This is a rather odd little book. Divorced Taro, who seems to have no friends, lives in a rundown apartment building, which will be torn down once the leases all run out. Over a concrete wall, he can see the top of the house next door from his balcony. It’s a big, ( Read more... )

Bitter Winds: Book 3 in the Tales of the Scavenger’s Daughters, by Kay Bratt. Lake Union Publishing, 2014 I wasn’t aware that “Bitter Winds” was the third in a series when I ordered it; it works as a standalone novel but I think would have made more sense if it had been read in order. The cast of characters is large, and I spent a good bit of time ( Read more... )

Lotus, by Lijia Zhang. Henry Holt and Company, 2017

Lotus is the nom de guerre of a young woman from rural China, who left the village to seek better employment in the factories. On her deathbed, her mother had told her to take care of her younger brother; she intends to make money to support the family and send her brother to high school and ( Read more... )

Wind/Pinball, by Haruki Murakami. Borzoi, 2015 “Hear the Wind Sing” is the first thing Murakami wrote, back in 1979. He just got the idea he should write a novel, then sat down and did it. The book is short and fairly undeveloped; hardly a novel at all. I’m really surprised it got published. He wrote “Pinball, 1973” directly after “Wind”, and the ( Read more... )

The Third Son, by Julie Wu. Algonquin Books, 2013Saburo is born the third son in a large Taiwanese family and has the misfortune of being the child least favored. His brothers are spoiled while Saburo is beaten regularly; they are given the prize foods while Saburo suffers from malnutrition; he is not allowed to sit in with their lessons; even his ( Read more... )

The Valley of Amazement, by Amy Tan. Ecco, 2013With her first novel in eight years, Amy Tan returns to the theme that she does so well: mothers and daughters. Spanning four generations and two continents, The Valley of Amazement tells us the story of Lucia (Lulu), her daughter Violet, Violet’s daughter Flora, and Magic Gourd, the courtesan who ( Read more... )