| Recently published titles for adults, teens and children to celebrate Asian Heritage Month
For Adults
Beijing Confidential:
A Tale of Comrades
Lost and Found
Jan Wong, 2007
Jan Wong revisits Beijing to search for a person whom she wronged more than thirty years ago. The personal journeys of two individuals are told against a city's changes over the same time.
Binu and the Great Wall
Tong Su, 2007
In a village where crying is forbidden, Binu never learned to hide her tears. Shunned by the villagers, she faces a bleak future until she meets the man she will marry, Qiliang. When Qiliang is forced to become a labourer on the Great Wall, Binu sets out on an extraordinary journey across Great Swallow Mountain, with only a blind frog for company.
Chef: A Novel
Jaspreet Singh, 2008
Chef Kirpal, seriously ill, returns to Kashmir after a gap of fourteen years to cook his last meal at the Governor’s house and excavate a part of his past which has kept him from moving forward.
The Chinese Knot
and Other Stories
Lien Chao, 2008
Set in Toronto’s racially diverse neighbourhoods, these short stories present the experiences of Chinese immigrant women at various stages of their lives.
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary
for Lovers
Xiaolu Guo, 2007
Zhuang has come to London to study English. Bewildered by vocabulary misunderstandings (each meticulously and humorously recorded) she takes up residence with an Englishman who has invited her to "be my guest" and enters a new world of freedom and self discovery.
Evening is the Whole Day
Preeta Samarasan, 2008
The author provocatively links the sorrows of one distraught family to Malaysia's bloody conflicts.
The Eye of Jade: A Novel
Diane Wei Liang, 2007
Private detective Mei Wang searches for an antique jade seal stolen during the Cultural Revolution, in this portrait of change in Chinese society set during the 1997 re-unification of Hong Kong with China.
A Golden Age: A Novel
Tahmima Anam, 2008
The Bangladesh War of Independence forever changes Rehana Haque’s comfortable life; dividing her from her children who support the resistance, and bringing her a love she had thought could never again be hers.
Happiness and
Other Disorders
Ahmad Saidullah, 2008
An editor breaks into a mysterious box to release ten stories about the Ashfaq family, a rural Muslim family facing cultural and personal hardships in post-independence India.
Miles From Nowhere
Nami Mun, 2009
The neglected only child of Korean immigrants living in the Bronx seeks refuge in a shelter and forms an unlikely alliance with a hustler and a streetwise girl. A gritty coming-of-age story about a girl searching for somewhere to belong.
A Place Within: Rediscovering India
M. G. Vassanji, 2008
Combining travelogue, myth, history, family history and journal entries, Vassanji describes an incredible journey through India, providing a superb portrait of both the country and the man.
Queens of K-Town:
A Novel
Angela Mi-Young Hur, 2007
Twenty-six-year-old Cora Moon returns to Manhattan's Koreatown where she lived as a teenager to make sense of her life and those of her best friends.
Sea of Poppies
Amitav Ghosh, 2008
Set in India in 1938 against the backdrop of the Opium Wars, this novel tells the stories of a widely divergent group of characters sailing aboard a former slave ship called the Ibis. Short listed for the Man Booker Prize.
The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai
Anyi Wang, 2008
After her photograph appears on the cover of Shanghai Life magazine, Wang Qiyao becomes the mistress of a wealthy benefactor, but after his death, she begins a lonely fall into anonymity and spends the rest of her life wandering Shanghai's myriad longtang. Charting her fortunes becomes the author’s metaphor for a vanished way of life.
Stealing Buddha's Dinner: A Memoir
Bich Minh Nguyen, 2007
The fall of Saigon in 1975 turned the Nguyen family into refugees when the author was still a baby. This is her memoir of growing up in Michigan surrounded by Vietnamese culture but yearning for American food.
The Story of a Widow: A Novel
Musharraf Farooqi, 2008
A fifty-year-old widow in Pakistan shocks her family when she decides to remarry after the death of her husband.
The Toss of a Lemon
Padma Viswanathan, 2008
The lives of Sivakami, a young Brahmin widow, and several generations of her descendants are impacted by the caste system in pre-independence India.
Unaccustomed Earth: Stories
Jhumpa Lahiri, 2008
A wonderful collection of short stories focusing on the American-raised children of Bengali parents. By the author of The Namesake.
The White Tiger:
A Novel
Aravind Adiga, 2008
In this satirical look at modern India, a chauffeur justifies the murder of his wealthy employer as an act of entrepreneurship. Winner of the Man Booker Prize.
Wolf Totem
Rong Jiang, 2008
Winner of the inaugural Man Asian literary prize, this autobiographical novel follows a Beijing student sent to the grasslands of Mongolia for "re-education." He steals and raises a wolf cub only to witness the deaths of wolves at the hands of arriving Chinese settlers.
For Teens
Beneath My
Mother's Feet
Amjed Qamar, 2008
After her father is injured, Nazia is pulled out of school, away from her friends and her marriage preparations to help her mother clean houses in a wealthy Karachi neighbourhood.
Child of Dandelions
Shenaaz Nanji, 2008
As Ugandan citizens in 1972, 15-year old Sabine and her family do not at first realize that President Idi Amin's order for all Indians to leave the country, will turn them into refugees.
Indie Girl
Kavita Daswani, 2007
At age 15, Indie has rejected her traditional name, Indira, and is poised to reject her parents' plans for her future in favour of a career in the fashion industry. But is this what she really wants to do with her life?
Mountain Girl, River Girl: A Novel
Ting-Xing Ye, 2008
Pan-Pan and Shu-lian leave their homes to find a better life in the big city. As dreams turn slowly into nightmares, their paths cross, and they decide to face their challenges together. This is a powerful tale of friendship and an authentic portrait of modern China.
Revolution is not a Dinner Party: A Novel
Ying Chang Compestine, 2007
When Comrade Li, one of Mao’s political officers moves into her family’s apartment, life for young Li Chang changes dramatically. As the Cultural Revolution spreads, her doctor parents are spied on and she is bullied at school because of her bourgeois background.
For Children
Coming to Canada
Rukhsana Khan 2008
Khadija and Hamza move from Pakistan to Canada. They start school, make new friends, go swimming, discover the library, and practise English. The book closes with the family becoming Canadian citizens. A portrait of the difficulties and joys of being an immigrant child.
Naomi's Tree
Joy Kogawa, 2008
A garden cherry tree sings of peace while awaiting the return of its Japanese Canadian family sent to an internment camp during WWII.
Bringing in the New Year
Grace Lin, 2008
Bright cheerful pictures illustrate this simple story of a family's preparations for the Lunar New Year. Customs and traditions of Chinese New Year are added as notes.
Tap Dancing on the Roof: Sijo (poems)
Linda Sue Park, 2007
A fun collection of short poems based on the Korean sijo: a fixed number of syllables and lines that end in an unexpected twist or joke.
Shu-Li and Tamara
Paul Yee, 2008
Two years after coming to Canada from China, Shu-Li is helping at the family deli after school, and working on a special Grade 4 class project with her new best friend Tamara. Then someone accuses Tamara of stealing.
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