This Week in Asian Review of Books

Asian Books Blog is not a review site. If you want reviews, see the Asian Review of Books. Here is a list of its newest reviews and round ups:

Poetry: Hula Hooping by Tammy Ho Lai-ming reviewed by Mani Rao
Outside reading: essays and articles on Russia and Asia, Middle Eastern and Indian literature, diversity selected by Peter Gordon
The Defections by Hannah Michell; The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith reviewed by John W. W. Zeiser
Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish reviewed by Jill Baker
Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand Review round up

The Hindu Prize / Submissions

The Hindu Prize shines a light on the best Indian fiction in English every year. It is run by The Hindu newspaper, which now invites submissions from publishers for the 2015 prize. Self-published titles are not eligible. See here for details. 

Q & A: Rena Pederson / The Burma Spring

The Burma Spring, by award-winning journalist and former US State Department speechwriter Rena Pederson, is a biography of Aung San Suu Kyi.  It offers a portrait of the woman herself, and also portraits of Burma, and of the Burmese people. (Burma was renamed Myanmar by the military government, but since this was not democratically elected, Western policy has often been to refer to the country as Burma. Rena adopts this policy too.)

Quick Notice / The Vegetarian, by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith

About the Book

Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more 'plant-like' existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares. 

Quick Notice / A Kim Jong-Il Production, by Paul Fischer

About the Book

We’ve all heard the phrase the truth is stranger than fiction.  Never has that been truer than in the real life story that unfolds in Paul Fischer’s A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power.

This Week in Asian Review of Books

Asian Books Blog is not a review site. If you want reviews, see the Asian Review of Books. Here is a list of its newest reviews:

Shanghai Homes: Palimpsests of Private Life by Jie Li reviewed by SY Koh
Green Shoots Under Soot-Stained Skies by Mark L. Clifford (excerpt)
Ouside reading: essays on Asian writing selected by the ARB editorial team
Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand reviewed by Nigel Collett

Irrawaddy Literary Festival Starts Today

The 3rd Irrawaddy Literary Festival starts today.

Check out the website here.

Check out the Facebook page here.

If you happen to be visiting the Festival, and you'd like to write about it for the blog, then let me know!  (Email: asianbooksblog@gmail.com)