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Books Set in Asia: Northern Countries
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.Whether you found this list searching for books about Asia or are participating in the Book Voyage reading challenge, we hope you find the perfect book set in northern Asia on this list.
Literary Themes in Northern Asia Books
Asia is the largest and most populated continent on Earth and is home to some of the world’s oldest human societies, dating back 600,000 years. As Asian societies became more sophisticated, they achieved remarkable accomplishments in technology, governance, and the arts. Today, Asia is home to two of the largest economies in the world—China and Japan. It is also home to some of the most secretive governments, including North Korea and Turkmenistan.
We’ve compiled a list of some of the best books set in Asia’s northern countries, including many great novels and historical fiction, compelling memoirs, and well-researched non-fiction reads. We’ve worked hard to curate book recommendations that feature many Asian writers and emphasize books that provide atmospheric descriptions that transport you to the Asian country of your choice.
Countries Covered by This List
For this reading challenge, we roughly divided Asia into northern and southern regions, and we consider northern Asian countries to include: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China (including its autonomous areas, like Tibet), Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Some countries, like Russia, straddle the border between Asia and Europe. Since we grouped all of Russia with Eastern Europe and included a few books set in Siberia on our Arctic & Antarctic list, we have not included Russia on our Asian list this month.
Highly Rated Books Set in Asia’s Northern Countries
Homeseeking
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Suchi was only 7 years old when she first met Haiwen in Shanghai. She was drawn to the sounds of his violin and their friendship developed into a deep love. But when Haiwen secretly enlisted in the Nationalist army in 1947, in order to save his brother from the draft, Suchi was left behind with nothing more than his violin and a note begging her forgiveness.
Sixty years later, they see each other for the first time thanks to a chance encounter at an Asian supermarket in Los Angeles. Recently widowed Haiwen hopes it might be a second chance for he and Suchi, but she has survived the intervening decades by refusing to look back.
This novel follows Suchi and Haiwen through the six decades they were separated. Through alternating viewpoints, Suchi’s story is told from her childhood to present, while Haiwen’s story in traced in reverse. From Chinese war and famine to the song halls of Hong Kong, from military encampments in Taiwan to the busy streets of NYC, and to sunny California, where they are finally reunited.
This epic, character-driven novel illustrates the different ways that people learn to survive through a lifetime of difficult decisions. Haiwen holds his memories close, while Suchi forces herself to only ever look forward.
Thoughts on This Book
Angela enjoyed this debut novel and learned a lot about the history of this region of Asia!
This novel incorporates various languages, and the characters are referred to by different names and different times in their lives. This lends a feel of authenticity to the novel and is handled by the author in a way that prevents it from becoming confusing.
Tiananmen Square
Book Summary
Lai grew up in Beijing in the 1970s, living with her family in a working-class neighborhood near the heart of the city. Her father is reclusive, her mother is quick-tempered and preoccupied with neighborhood gossip, so Lai spends her days with her friends. Only her grandmother, a formidable and colorful maverick, seems to really see Lai.
After pulling a childish prank, Lai has a terrifying altercation with the police that opens her eyes to the harsh realities of the Chinese state and haunts her for years. As she reaches adolescence, a bookseller introduces her to the works of Hemingway, Camus, and Orwell, among others, and opens her eyes to the power of literature.
As she grows older, Lai wins a scholarship to study at prestigious Peking University. There, she befriends a group of students dedicated to living their lives authentically as individuals, despite the Communist Party’s growing insistence on conformity. Her group gets swept up in the fervor of growing student resistance in the lead-up to the watershed historic event of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests.
About the Author
While written as a novel, this book is informed by the author’s real-life experiences. She was personally involved in the 1989 student protests in Beijing and left China shortly afterward, later settling in the UK.
Lai Wen is a pen name used by the author to protect her identity and maintain personal security, given the political sensitivity and potential risks associated with writing about the 1989 Tiananmen Square events.
Book Summary
This character-driven historical fiction will transport you to 1800s China as a young girl named Little Flower is sold to be a servant for the wealthy Fong family. Bound by the painful tradition of foot binding and the rigid hierarchies of her world, Little Flower forms an unlikely and complicated bond with Linjing, the privileged daughter of the household.
As both girls navigate duty, desire, and the constraints placed on women of their era, their fates become deeply intertwined over the decades through marriage, sacrifice, and survival.
About the Author & Her Pen Name
Born in a Chinese enclave in Saigon, Vietnam, Jane Yang migrated with her family to Australia when she was seven. She spent much of her childhood watching Cantonese period dramas and reading historical fiction. Educated in pharmaceutical science, she still feels a strong pull toward Chinese superstition. In fact, when she was seeking a change of career, she took the advice of a feng shui master who told her that writing under the pen name of Jane Yang would provide the magic she needed to reach her publishing dreams.
The Young Will Remember
Book Summary
In 1950, twenty-eight-year-old Chinese American journalist Ellie Chang boards a flight to report on a battle in the mountains of North Korea. When the plane is shot down, she finds herself stranded behind enemy lines during the coldest winter in decades.
Certain she will be captured, Ellie is unexpectedly protected by a Korean woman who claims her as the daughter she has been searching for since the previous war. The woman, who calls herself Emma, brings Ellie to the Pak family, led by a pastor. Ellie cannot speak Korean and knows remaining with them is dangerous, yet surviving alone seems impossible.
As the conflict intensifies, Ellie urges Emma and the Paks to travel south in search of safety and the possibility of finding Emma’s missing daughter.
About the Author
This is the sophomore novel of Taiwanese American lawyer Eve J. Chung. Many of the inequalities that she observed growing up ultimately influenced her decision to become a women’s human rights lawyer and activist. In this novel, she explores the overlooked history of female war correspondents during the Korean War.
Our readers enjoyed her first book, Daughters of Shandong, and we are looking forward to reading this new title.
The Fourth Daughter
Book Summary
Chef Liv Kuo’s career is taking off until a traumatic experience leaves her unable to step outside her Manhattan apartment. Then her beloved grandmother, Ah-Ma, asks for help with a family mystery Liv never knew existed.
More than sixty years earlier, Ah-Ma’s infant fourth daughter was taken from her in Taiwan, and she has never stopped hoping to find her.
Liv travels to Taiwan, where she learns about her grandmother’s life under martial law and the painful choices that were made for her. As the two women search for answers, they uncover an old cookbook, long-held family secrets, and a betrayal that changes what Liv thought she knew about her family.
About the Author
Lyn Liao Butler was born in Taiwan and moved to the States when she was seven. Before becoming an author, she was a professional ballerina and modern dancer.
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This historical novel is based on the real-life and memoir of a 15th-century female physician in China. Tan Yunxian was raised in the Ming Dynasty era by her grandmother, also a physician, who taught her the art of Chinese medicine. Additionally, she learned about female conditions from her best friend, Meiling, who was training to be a midwife. While Yunxian was on the path to be a success in her own right, she was still sent into an arranged marriage.
Her new mother-in-law was a traditionalist who forbade her from seeing Meiling and stopped her from helping the girls and women in their household. Instead, she is supposed to be a “proper wife,” learning poetry, embroidering foot-binding slippers, and staying within the walls of their compound.
How did Yunxian break free and go on to treat women from all classes of society and create remedies that are still used over 500 years later? Lisa See tells her compelling life story in this novel.
Our Thoughts on This Book
While Melissa loves historical fiction, she typically prefers anything from the Gilded Age to the present and usually avoids earlier settings. However, she was drawn to Lady Tan’s Circle of Women as her Book of the Month pick in June. While she was compelled by the description, the book was even better than expected and often left her awestruck as she learned about what it was like for women in Ming Dynasty-era China.
It was fascinating to see what was “normal” at the time within a wealthy and revered family. Knowing the book is based on a real woman adds to the page-turning nature of the novel!
About the Author
Lisa See was born in Paris and raised in Los Angeles. Her paternal great-grandfather, Fong See, was Chinese, making her one-eighth Chinese, which as had a great impact on her life’s work. Fong See became known as the “100-year-old godfather” of LA’s Chinatown.
Four Seasons in Japan
Book Summary
Flo is an American translator working in Toyko, but she lost her confidence as work dried up, and her relationship ended. Everything changes when she finds a book on the Tokyo Subway. As soon as she starts reading, she knows she needs to translate the novel, which is about a strict old woman, Ayako, who has just taken guardianship of her grandson, Kyo.
As Flo reads through the characters’ year in rural Japan, she feels compelled to track down the author. The protagonists in the book have much in common with Flo’s life, blurring the lines between the original text and translation.
What to Expect in This Book
This quirky book within a book is a beautiful look at community, connection, and humanity. The story alternates between Flo’s life and the story of Ayako and Kyo. It will transport you to Japan as you read and teach you about culture and tradition along the way.
About the Author
English author Nick Bradley spent over a decade living and working in Japan. He holds a PhD from the University of East Anglia (UEA) with a focus on the figure of the cat in Japanese literature.
Honey in the Wound
Book Summary
Spanning decades and countries, this novel follows several generations of Korean women as they face the lasting effects of Japanese imperialism and fight to hold on to their strength.
The story begins with Young-Ja, a girl whose emotions can change the food she makes. Her happy childhood is shattered in 1931, when Japanese soldiers attack her family and force her from home.
After a Korean rebel discovers her unusual gift, Young-Ja is taken to Manchuria and becomes part of a secret group of women working as spies in a teahouse. Years later, she is living alone in Seoul when her granddaughter, Rinako, arrives from Tokyo. Rinako has a gift of her own.
About the Author
Debut author Jiyoung Han was born in Seoul, Korea, and grew up in the American Midwest. After living and working on four different continents, she now calls San Francisco home.
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies
Book Summary
This novel opens in 1960 in a Tibetan village as sisters Lhamo and Tenkyi prepare to flee the Chinese occupation with their parents. After surviving the treacherous journey across the Himalayas, they arrive at a refugee camp in Nepal, but their parents don’t make it. As Lhamo struggles to deal with the loss of her mother and rebuild her life, hope arrives in the form of a young man named Samphel and his uncle, who brings with him the ancient statue of the Nameless Saint-a relic known to vanish and reappear in times of need.
Decades later, the sisters are now separated and Tenkyi is living in Toronto with Lhamo’s daughter, Dolma. Dolma is vying for a place in the Tibetan studies program at a university, hoping to reconnect with her family’s heritage. When Dolma comes across the Nameless Saint statue at an art collector’s event in Toronto, she must decide what she is willing to do for her community, even if it means risking her dreams.
Why This Book Made the List
Although much of this book is set outside of Tibet, about a third of the narrative centers on Tibet and the family’s harrowing journey when they are forced to leave their home. Later, we get further insights into Tibetan history and culture through Dolma’s studies.
Author Tsering Yangzom Lama was born and raised in a Tibetan refugee community in Kathmandu, Nepal, after her parents fled Tibet in 1960 following the failed uprising against Chinese rule. She grew up learning the Tibetan language, rituals, and culture from her family members who had experienced it firsthand.
Another Title to Consider
If you’d prefer a non-fiction book about Tibet, we recommend Eat the Buddha by journalist Barbara Demick. In this book, which spans several decades and also looks back at Tibetan history, Demick follows the private lives of a wide array of Tibetan citizens – including a princess, a nomad, a poet, a schoolgirl, and an upwardly mobile entrepreneur. Through their eyes, we learn about life in Tibet during the 21st century, and we see each of them face the same dilemma: whether to hold onto their Buddhist teachings of nonviolence or join the Chinese.
The Turtle House
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This split-time historical fiction alternates between 1930s Japan, beginning in Mineko’s childhood, and 1990s Texas, where we see Mineko’s story as a grandmother through the eyes of her granddaughter, Lia.
In 1999, Lia is a 25-year-old promising architect in Austin, but has just moved back home to the small ranching town of Curtain, Texas. Her new roommate is her prickly 73-year-old grandmother, Mineko (Minnie). While the duo hadn’t been close previously, they began bonding through late-night conversations.
Mineko begins revealing stories of her childhood in pre-war Tokyo, along with stories of the war, a man named Akio Sato, and an abandoned Japanese country estate they called the Turtle House. As Lia begins learning about her grandmother’s past before becoming a war bride and coming to the US, she recognizes that she also needs to come clean about her own surprising return home.
Inspiration for the Novel
The Turtle House was inspired by the life of the author’s beloved grandmother, a Japanese war bride.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In the Year of the Wood Dragon, brilliant puzzle expert Mike Brink is invited to Tokyo, Japan to open the legendary Dragon Box, a mysterious antique puzzle box with rumored supernatural origins that has remained unsolved for over 150 years.
What begins as a professional challenge quickly unravels into something far more dangerous, as the box is tied to a centuries-old Buddhist sect, a sacred temple in Kyoto, and dark secrets buried in Japan’s past.
As Brink navigates the winding alleys of Tokyo and the tranquil, ancient grounds of Kyoto’s monasteries, he’s drawn deeper into a world where spiritual beliefs and quantum physics converge.
As Brink confronts both internal and external threats, he must solve the box’s enigma before it unleashes forces that could alter the course of reality. Brink’s quest to open The Dragon Box launches him on a breakneck adventure across Japan, from the Imperial Palace in Tokyo to the pristine forests of Hakone to historic Kyoto to an ancient cave in Kyushu.
Genre & Series Notes
This novel is described as a thriller, but it also involves elements of historical fiction, Japanese mysticism, and supernatural suspense. The narrative is rooted in Japanese imperial history and lore connected to the Meiji era (which spanned from 1868 to 1912 and was a period of rapid modernization and Westernization).
While this is listed as the second book in a series, it includes a succint backstory that brings readers quickly up to speed on the protagonist, allowing it to read well as a standalone. The first book in the series, spans from Upstate New York and NYC to Prague.
About the Author
Author Danielle Trussoni lived in Japan for two years during her mid-20s, teaching English in rural areas of the country. She later returned to Japan in 2023, visiting Tokyo, Hakone puzzle-box museums, and Kyoto locations for book research.
Rabbit Moon
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
After their daughter Lindsey is gravely injured in a hit‑and‑run while teaching English in Shanghai during her college gap year, divorced parents Claire and Aaron race across the globe. At the hospital, while hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, they find themselves orbiting secrets and regrets.
The accident unearths a deeper fissure in the family: the shocking event that ended the Litvaks’ marriage and turned Lindsey against them. Estranged from her parents, she has confided only in her younger sister, Grace, adopted as an infant from China.
While Claire and Aaron struggle to get their bearings amid Shanghai’s neon lights, steamy streets, and futuristic skyscrapers, they confront troubling questions about their daughter’s life there and realize nothing is as it seems.
More About the Book
This novel drops you into modern Shanghai and describes the city so vividly that it feels as alive as any character. The “Rabbit Moon” title nods to the Mid‑Autumn Festival and that fabled red thread linking two sisters across oceans and time.
About the Author
In 2016, author Jennifer Haigh received a fellowship from the Shanghai Writers Association and spent several months in China. In interviews, she has explained how Shanghai’s “fast-moving city” energy, its heavy traffic, and vibrant public spaces profoundly influenced the novel.
The Woman in the White Kimono
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
94% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Naoko is a seventeen-year-old girl in 1957 Japan whose family has prearranged a marriage for her that will secure their family’s status. But Naoko wants to marry for love, and she’s fallen for an American sailor. When her family finds out that she is pregnant with the sailor’s child, she is cast out in disgrace and forced to make an unimaginable choice.
In present-day America, Tori finds a letter that contains a shocking revelation. In her quest to learn the truth, she travels to a remote seaside village in Japan.
Inspiration For the Novel
This book is described as a mesmerizing and emotional read that will captivate your heart and transport you back in time to post-war Japan.
American author Ana Johns based this historical fiction novel on her father’s own experiences in Japan after WWII. It tells the true stories of a little-known era in Japanese and American history. Although this is a dual-timeline novel, the historical story takes center stage.
Peach Blossom Spring
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This novel follows three generations of a Chinese family as they search for a place to call home. In China in 1938, Meilin is a young wife with a bright future. But when the Japanese army approaches, she is forced to flee with her 4-year-old son Renshu. With nothing but an illustrated scroll that depicts ancient fables, as Meilin travels from rural China to Shanghai to Taiwan, these fables are interwoven into the novel.
Years later, Renshu has settled in the US under the name Henry Dao. Despite his daughter Lily’s desire to understand her heritage, he refuses to share any information about his childhood. He believes that the only way to keep his family safe is to shield them from their history.
Why This Book Made the List
While only about half of this book is set in Asia, readers say that they learned a great deal about China and Taiwan through the pages of this novel, which convinced us that we must add it to this list. This novel has been compared to epics like Pachinko (set in Korea and Japan, on this list) and The Mountains Sing (set in Vietnam, from our Southern Asia list).
About the Author & the Inspiration
Author Melissa Fu was raised in Northern New Mexico and lived in half a dozen US states before settling in the UK. Her father grew up in China and Taiwan, but it wasn’t until she was an adult that she heard any of his stories – the stories that ultimately inspired Peach Blossom Spring.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
99% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Kimi is a high school student who aspires to attend art school. Her mother is a well-known painter who wants Kimi to follow in her fine art footsteps, but Kimi has become much more drawn to fashion design – a field that her mother strongly disapproves of.
After an explosive fight with her mom, Kimi receives a letter from her estranged Japanese grandparents inviting her to visit them in Kyoto for spring break. Even though she’s never met them, she sees it as the perfect opportunity to escape her troubles at home.
When she arrives in Japan, the cultural customs and language and completely familiar to her – as are her grandparents. Soon she discovers that inspiration is everywhere – from Kyoto’s outdoor markets, art installations, and the cherry blossom festival. She meets a young man named Akira – an aspiring med student – who helps to show her even more of the city.
As the week goes on, Kimi gets to know her grandparents and learns so much more about both her mother back in America, herself, and her art.
Why We Think You’ll Love It
This sweet YA novel will completely immerse you in the sights, sounds, scents, and tastes of Kyoto, Japan, and have you planning a trip there yourself. When you need a break from books about heavier topics, this light-hearted book about self-discovery and young romance is a delightful pick.
We both enjoyed this book and highly recommend it for fans of Jenna Evans Welch’s Love & Gelato, Love & Luck, and Love & Olives. You’ll want to plan a trip to Kyoto as soon as you turn the final page.
About the Author & the Inspiration
Author Sarah Kuhn said in an interview that growing up Japanese American, she rarely saw characters that looked like her in the rom-com and sci-fi stories she loved. That’s why, as an author, she strives to create stories about girls like her, in which their heritage is a fundamental part of who they are, but it’s not their entire identity.
A Map for the Missing
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
When Tang Yitian’s mother calls him frantically saying that his father has disappeared, he returns to his family’s rural China village for the first time in ten years. The family has been estranged during his decade in America, making it difficult for Yitian to understand what has happened.
The search is complicated by his mother’s evasiveness and China’s impenetrable bureaucracy. His only hope is to reconnect with a childhood friend, Tian Hanwen. The friends dreamt of attending university together, but while Yitian ended up a professor in America, Hanwen was left behind and resigned to live as a midlevel bureaucrat’s wealthy housewife.
Now adults, the duo must figure out who Yitian’s father really was. Their search spans rural provinces and big cities, providing an up-close look at much of 20th-century China.
About the Author
Author Belinda Huijuan Tang lives in Beijing and studied at Peking University for two years, receiving a Master of Arts in China Studies.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This North Korean book is the memoir of Hyeonseo Lee, who shares the harsh realities of growing up under the secretive and brutal communist regime. She was raised to believe that her home country was “the best on the planet,” but the famine of the 1990s began to open her eyes. Her home was located near the Chinese border, which gave her small glimpses of the outside world that most of her fellow citizens never saw. That, combined with the poverty and starvation they suffered for years, allowed her to realize that she and her family had been brainwashed by her government.
At age seventeen, Lee decided to escape North Korea. She details her terrifying struggle to avoid capture by the ruthless dictatorship. It then took more than a decade for her to reunite with her family and help guide them to freedom as well.
Excellent on Audio
The audiobook of The Girl With Seven Names is read by the author, which makes this a great choice to listen to.
Another Title Book to Consider
Award-winning journalist Barbara Demick wrote Nothing to Envy, which is considered one of the best books on North Korea because it takes you deep inside the secretive country to shed light on what life is like under a repressive totalitarian regime.
In this book, her reporting follows six average North Korean citizens over the course of a fifteen-year period that covers the death of Kim Il-sung, the rise to power of Kim Jong-il, and the famine that killed one-fifth of the North Korean population.
Life looks very different in a country that is not connected to the Internet, where radios and TVs are limited to one government-controlled station, and where you can be punished for showing affection, yet in some ways, the human experience is also the same.
Unlike many other books about life in North Korea, Demick’s work allows us to see these six North Koreans through the everyday experiences of falling in love and raising families. However, we also see them struggling for survival, and one by one, they experience moments when they realize that their government has betrayed them.
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
97% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
The Akha people live in a remote mountain village in China, where, for generations, their lives have revolved around farming tea. Li-yan is one of the few educated girls in the village, and everything begins to change for her when a stranger arrives at the village gate driving a jeep—the first automobile any of them have ever seen. Little by little, Li-yan begins to reject the customs of her village.
When Li-yan becomes pregnant out of wedlock, local tradition calls for her to give her child over to be killed. Instead, she flees to a nearby city, where she leaves her baby at an orphanage. She then remains in the city and puts her experience and education to use by pursuing a career in the tea business outside of the fields.
Li-yan’s daughter is adopted by loving American parents and is raised in a life of privilege in California. As she grows, she continues to wonder about her origins, and back in China, the mother she never knew longs for her as well. The two remain connected across the continents by their family heritage of tea.
Thoughts on This Book
Many readers have assumed that Lisa See would write a sequel to this modern historical fiction, but the author has stated in numerous interviews that no sequel is planned. Nonetheless, reviews consider this among the best fiction set in China, and it is consistently highly rated by Book Girls’ Guide readers.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Sydney Moore is a California teenager whose parents have suddenly shipped her off to spend her senior year with her wealthy godparents, the Kims, in South Korea with no further explanation. The Kims run an important company, and they’re never home. Instead, they’ve tasked their son, Chul, with helping Sydney adjust to life at the elite Daeshim Academy.
Chul has no interest in playing chaperone to an American girl. That is, until his rival, Gun, starts hanging around. Sydney thinks Gun is a nice guy, but Chul has reason to think otherwise, and he’s determined to protect Sydney.
Things are complicated further when Sydney’s mom cuts off contact, and Sydney finally begins to uncover the real reason her parents sent her away.
The Book Girls Say…
While looking for a light and fun series to watch on Netflix a couple of summers back, Angela discovered XO, Kitty, which was created by Jenny Han, the author of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Not only did watching the first season of this show make her bump South Korea up on her travel bucket list, it also led her to discover that there is a whole YA romance genre called K-drama. Of course, she immediately started researching a good K-drama to add to this list! This book sounds like a perfect match for fans of XO, Kitty!
Book Summary
This non-fiction book by Hong Kong journalist Karen Cheung provides a modern insider’s account of Hong Kong. Cheung came of age in the wake of Hong Kong’s reunification with China in 1997.
In this memoir, she introduces us to the tenacious counterculture and the robust underground music scene. She also explores the unique history of youth-led protests. Drawing from her own experience, as well as from interviews with musicians, protesters, and writers who have made Hong Kong their home, Cheung helps us to better understand her home at a critical moment in history – both for Hong Kong and democracies around the world.
What to Expect in This Book
While this non-fiction is described as a memoir of Hong Kong, it’s also Karen Cheung’s memoir. As such, she does not claim to speak for all Hong Kongers, but rather introduces us to her home as she sees it. While she is critical at times, she’s not so much cynical as she is hopeful for the future.
Daughters of the Dragon
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
When Anna’s adoptive mother passes away, she decides to travel to Korea to track down her birth mother. At the orphanage, she’s devasted to learn that her birth mother is also already gone.
Then, a stranger hands Anna a package containing an antique comb and an address. She’s led to the home of Hong Jae-hee, who shares her family history, which includes the Japanese occupation of Korea during WW2. Jae-hee was one of the 200,000 Korean women forced to serve Japanese soldiers as “comfort women”.
While this challenging story is fiction, it’s based on the true events of little-known comfort women. The treatment of these women was horrific, and their stories must be shared instead of buried.
About the Author & the Inspiration
After adopting a daughter from Korea, the author was inspired to research more about the country’s history. He learned so much that this book is the first in a three-part series. In addition to providing lots of information about the lives and struggles of comfort women, this novel also provides historical context for how Korea came to be two separate countries.
Format Notes
If you prefer audiobooks, keep in mind that the audio version of this one is exclusive to Audible, so you won’t find it via Libby or any other library apps. However, our readers report that they didn’t enjoy the narrator, so be sure to listen to a sample on Audible before committing to this format.
The Song of the Jade Lily
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In the late 1930s, China welcomed Jewish Europeans trying to flee Hitler. In this book, one of those refugees, Romy, meets a local, Li, and the young girls develop a quick friendship. You’ll feel like you’re in Shanghai as the girls explore the city together. Unfortunately, the realities of World War II begin to overshadow their friendship.
You’ll also meet Alexandra, a British girl who visited her grandparents, Romy and Wilhelm, in Australia in 2016. As she learns about her family history, she’s compelled to visit Shanghai herself, determined to understand more.
Family secrets, friendship, and courage fill the pages of this split-timeline book. It also shares the little-known history of Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai and the effects of Japanese control of China during the war.
More About This Book
Author Kristy Manning was inspired to write this novel after her first visit to Shanghai and visiting the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. She did extensive research on the experiences of Jews who lived there during the war, and her novel received a great review from the Jewish Book Council.
Other Titles to Consider
If you are interested in other titles set in China around the WWII era, we have two other recommendations for you that have been popular with our readers in past years.
When We Were Young and Brave by Hazel Gaynor is inspired by true events and deals with the Japanese Army’s internment of teachers and children in China. While this book is not classified as a YA, half of the story is told from the perspective of a young schoolgirl, and as a result, some of the difficulties of war are told with a softer tone than in other WWII novels.
The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel is set in the 1940s and transports you deep into the impoverished streets of the city to the electrifying jazz clubs. It opened our eyes to the fact that Shanghai was a safe harbor for European Jews during the early years of the war (nearly 20,000 Jews settled in Shanghai from 1938 to 1941). At 430 pages, the dual-timeline historical fiction is not overly long, but some readers say it feels slow at times.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
92% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Korea’s Jeju Island has a fascinating real-life history of female deep-sea free divers called Haenyeo, who collect seaweed, clams, and abalone. Inspired by this history, this novel tells the story of Mi-ja and Young-sook – two best friends who come from very different backgrounds despite both growing up on the island of Jeju. As soon as they are old enough, they take their place as “baby divers” in the village’s all-female diving operation, which is led by Young-sook’s mom. This is the beginning of a life of excitement and responsibility for the two friends, but also a life filled with danger.
The Island of Sea Women takes place over many decades, beginning in the 1930s, throughout WWII and the Korean War, and all the way up to the era of cell phones.
Over the years, the residents of Jeju are caught between warring empires, which often makes it difficult for Mi-ja and Young-soon to ignore their differences, especially when Mi-ja’s father becomes a Japanese collaborator. As the years go on, forces beyond their control will drive their friendship to a breaking point.
Consider This Before Reading
Before picking up this book, be aware that this is a very heavy read that includes some prolonged scenes of graphic violence. Despite being heart-wrenching, most readers find it to be a worthwhile story that is ultimately about strength and forgiveness.
Another Book to Consider
If you are interested in a very different style of novel based on the Haenyeo (female divers) of Jeju, consider The Mermaid from Jeju. Set in the aftermath of World War II while Japan is withdrawing from the peninsula and the United States is establishing troops in the region, this story follows Junja, who has followed in her family’s footsteps to become a successful haenyeo and is allowed to take her first trip into the mountains to trade their harvest.
Unfortunately, when she returns home, she finds her mother dying after a treacherous dive. She’ll be forced to learn to navigate the world without her mother, despite memories of her at every turn. Her loss is amplified by the tumultuous political situation throughout this enchanting story set leading up to the Korean War.
When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Set in modern-day Mongolia, a Buddhist monk and his identical twin brother (who has renounced his monastic life in favor of Western ways) set out on a quest to find the next great lama. As they travel across the beautiful and varied landscape, from the Gobi Desert to the ancient capital of Chinggis Khan, the brothers, who can hear each other’s thoughts, contemplate questions of the immortal soul, as well as more earthly matters, such as love, sex, and brotherhood.
Through this novel, the author includes a lot of details about Mongolia’s geography, culture, and history, and also provides readers an education of Buddhism. It provides a “stunningly far-flung examination of our individual struggle to retain faith and discover meaning in a fast-changing world, and a paean to Buddhist acceptance of what simply is.”
About the Author
Author Quan Barry was born in Saigon, Vietnam and raised in Boston. If you’ve read her 2020 novel, We Ride Upon Sticks (about a field hockey team in the 1980s), you’ll find this to be a very different type of novel. Some early reviewers of this new release say they found the writing style a bit strange at first, but most grew to love it and describe this novel as unique and mesmerizing. The book is written in very short sections (some just 1 to 4 pages), which makes it easy to pick up and put down again despite the profound subject matter.
Another Mongolia Title to Consider
For a different look at Mongolia, consider picking up Galsan Tschinag’s 1997 literary fiction novel, The Blue Sky. The first and only member of the Tuvans to use written language to tell stories, Galsan Tschinag chronicles their traditions in this fascinating, bittersweet novel about a shepherd boy’s coming of age. Because this short book (just 209 pages) is NOT plot-driven, but instead reads more like a collection of stories, it has mixed reviews but could be a fascinating look into a culture that hasn’t been shared before.
Stans By Me
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Do you enjoy offbeat travel memoirs and dry British wit? Stans by me will take you along author Ged Gillmore’s trip through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
He documents the landscapes and ancient traditions he encounters at each stop along the way. You’ll feel like you’ve visited Central Asia by the time you’re done reading, and may even add one or more of his destinations to your bucket list.
His travel companions from his bus tour are fascinating characters on their own and add another level to his stories.
Thoughts on This Book
Our readers describe this travel memoir as both humorous and informative. You’ll likely find yourself wishing this book included a map, as well as photos of many of the gorgeous sights he visits, so we suggest you keep the internet handy to pull up maps and images as you read.
This book is only available in eBook form.
Another Title to Consider
If you prefer a journalistic travel memoir rather than a witty travelogue, we recommend Sovietistan by Erika Fatland. The author is a social anthropologist whose journey focused on discovering how the Soviet roots of the Stans have influenced the countries well after they became free in 1991.
As you read, you’ll get a good sense of what it was like to live in these countries during the 2010s through her meetings with locals. Each encounter helps explain the countries’ complexity and what their citizens have endured, whether they’re fighting for human rights or victims of bride snatching.
Beasts of a Little Land
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
93% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This sweeping, literary historical fiction will take readers from the perfumed chambers of a courtesan school in Pyongyang to the glamorous cafes of a modernizing Seoul and the boreal forests of Manchuria.
In 1917, deep in the snowy mountains of occupied Korea, an impoverished local hunter on the brink of starvation saves a young Japanese officer from an attacking tiger. Through this one act, the fates of these two men are connected, unfolding a saga that spans half a century.
In an act of desperation, a young girl named Jade is sold by her family to a courtesan school. This will cement her place in the lowest social status. When she befriends an orphan boy named JungHo, who scrapes together a living begging on the streets of Seoul, they form a deep friendship. As the two come of age, JungHo is swept up in the revolutionary fight for independence, while Jade becomes a sought-after performer.
This novel “unveils a world where friends become enemies, enemies become saviors, heroes are persecuted, and beasts take many shapes.”
About the Author
Author Juhea Kim was born in Incheon, Korea, and moved to Portland, Oregon at the age of nine.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Named a New York Times “Notable Book of 2020,” and released on the 75th anniversary of the US dropping the nuclear bomb that decimated Hiroshima, Fallout is an engrossing non-fiction detective story, as well as an important piece of hidden history that shows how one heroic scoop saved—and can still save—the world.
Immediately after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US government began a secret propaganda and information suppression campaign to hide the truth about the devastating effects of nuclear weapons. Occupation forces closed the two cities to Allied reporters, preventing leaks about the horrific long-term effects of radiation which killed thousands during the months after the blast.
For nearly a year, the cover-up worked – until New Yorker journalist John Hersey got into Hiroshima and managed to report the truth to the world. Even his fellow reporters didn’t know about his work until it was published in the magazine in August of 1946.
In Fallout, Blume reveals how Hershey courageously uncovered and reported on one of the deadliest cover-ups of the 20th century. His revelations about the true effects of the atomic bomb provided one of the greatest deterrents to ever using the weapons again, thereby potentially saving millions of lives.
Thoughts on This Book
Our readers report that the audiobook is a bit monotone, so we recommend picking up a paper or Kindle version instead of listening to this one.
Author Lesley M.M. Blume is an award-winning journalist from New York.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
91% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In the early 1900s, teenage Sunja meets a wealthy man near her seaside home in Korea and becomes pregnant, only to discover that the man is married. He attempts to buy her off, but she instead accepts another man’s offer and follows him to Japan, where they are discriminated against both for being Korean and Christian.
Sunja’s decision to leave her home, and reject her son’s powerful father, sets the stage for this epic novel that follows four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family in 20th-century Japan. It is a history of one family and a political history of the relationship between Japanese and Koreans throughout the 1900s.
Our Thoughts on This Book
This book is a bit slow to start, and it can take some time to become familiar with all of the characters, but the investment pays off for most readers! This epic deals with many challenging issues that some readers might find triggering.
About the Author
Min Jin Lee was born in Seoul and attended Yale and Georgetown University Law School. She is also the author of a powerful short story titled The Best Girls about an excellent student from a poor, traditional family in Seoul who has heard her whole life that she can’t provide the family with dignity because she’s a girl.
Convenience Store Woman
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
80% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Convenience Store Woman is a 2016 award-winning Japanese novella. Keiko never felt like she fit in, at home or at school. But at 18, she began working at Smile Mart. The store’s procedure manual helps guide all her interactions and even her clothing. She loves feeling “normal” at the store and has worked there for 18 years – about 17 years longer than the average Smile Mart employee.
At age 36, she feels societal pressure to make big changes – like finding a husband and getting a “proper” job.
The author based this contemporary novella on her own experience working at the convenience store chain, which explains how she was able to perfectly capture the atmosphere of this store, which is a familiar part of life in Japan. From a Western perspective, we might picture grabbing an occasional drink, candy bar, or a not-so-great hot dog at the gas station, but convenience stores in Japan are completely different. Not only do they provide a wide variety of freshly-made food that people rely on daily, but Japan’s convenience stores are also a central part of everyday life.
This short book (just 163 pages) is a very quick read that provides a sharp social commentary on conformity and was a huge hit in Japan before being translated into English. This book is darkly comic and offbeat – both in story and structure.
Consider This Before Reading
Not every book on our lists ends up being loved by all, and that’s okay. This book proved to be quite controversial among Book Girls’ Guide readers during the Book Voyage Challenge in past years – some loved the book, while others strongly disliked it.
Especially given its very short length, we’d urge you to still give this character-driven book a chance if you’re drawn to quirky characters (we think fans of Eleanor Oliphant will enjoy this book). It makes a quick and easy add-on to any other books you’re thinking of reading for Northern Asia.
You are welcome to choose any book that you’d like to read for the challenge, but we hope that this list of books has given you a good starting point.
Sign Up for the Book Voyage Reading Challenge
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Printable Version of This Book List
Readers who support The Book Girls’ Guide through our Buy Me a Coffee (BMAC) membership site can access printable versions of the reading challenge book lists. As we update each book list throughout the year – following the monthly reading challenge schedule – each list will be available in a single-page printable format for our BMAC members.
We offer two membership levels. Both our BFF members and our Inner Circle members get access to the single-page printables for the year-long reading challenges. Visit our Buy Me a Coffee membership page for a full list of benefits for each level.
Our BMAC members help cover the cost of running the challenges so we can keep them free for everyone!
Book Recommendations for Other Regions
Find more recommendations for other regions of the world using the links below.
- Books Set in Asia: Northern Countries
- Books Set in Asia: Southern Countries
- Books Set in Australia and New Zealand
- Books Set in Eastern Europe & Russia
- Books Set in Africa
- Books Set in Western Europe
- Books Set in South America
- Books Set in Antarctica and the Arctic
- Books Set in North America (By Country & Region)
- Books Set in the Middle East
- Books Set on a Form of Transportation
- Books That Take Place On an Island
- Books that Span Multiple Continents
soonsoo
The Island of Sea Women is in my house and hasn’t been read. Thanks for the incentive!!!
I love your book lists and keep them in a special file. You include so many books of interest that I often am running several months behind. If I read a book from an earlier list, how can I enter it into my “books read?”
Your blog post made me cry this morning. Yes, this is exactly what books are meant to do – inspire empathy and connection. It is a happy coincidence that April’s theme is Northern Asia and I look forward to reading a few from your list. I have Wild Swans and Pachinko on my TBR shelves, so those would be the logical choices…but you never know what will grab me when it is time to read. Thanks for a wonderful challenge!
Thanks again for a wonderfully curated list of books! As Asia has always been a special interest of mine, I’ve already read 5 of the listed books (including the World of Susie Wong when I was in High School!) Still, I’ve found 8 additional books on this list that appeal to me….. I hardly know where to start. As I am also a food/cooking person, I may start with The Great Passage. I’m also going to pretend that The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See ( already in my stack of TBR books) is on the list and read it too.