This week in Asian Review of Books

See the Asian Review of Books for ever-interesting discussion. Here are links to its newest reviews, excerpts, letters, essays, listings, translations, news items, and round ups:

Announcement of the inaugural Hong Kong History Book Prize 
Eight Juxtapositions: China Through Imperfect Analogies from Mark Twain to Manchukuo by Jeffrey Wasserstrom reviewed by Jonathan Chatwin*
A Painter Prince, an excerpt from The Ivory Throne by Manu S Pillai
The Face: Strangers on a Pier by Tash Aw reviewed by Peter Gordon

Outside reading: links to recent articles, interviews and commentary

* Jeffrey Wasserstrom's guest post for Asian Books Blog.

The Sunday Post

A rojak* of items that caught my eye this week…

Indie Spotlight: Pierre Dimaculangan

Indie Spotlight is our monthly column on self-publishing. This month Siobhan Daiko interviews Pierre Dimaculangan, who was born in Manila, although he now lives in the States.  Pierre has just published The Sage, the Swordsman and the Scholars, the first in his projected historical fantasy trilogy, Trials of the Middle Kingdom (China).

When enigmatic nonhuman visitors arrive from the sea, the very foundations of the Middle Kingdom are under attack. The evil agenda of the invaders sparks a war that will determine the fate of the Ming Dynasty and the nations beyond. A young, legendary swordsman allies himself with a banished Shaolin monk, a defeated bandit chieftain, a carefree Mongol, and an unknown philosopher who knows the only hope for victory. Together, this band of misfits strives to be proven worthy of the impossible task before them. Determined to combat the invaders' initial offensives, they must also repel countless internal enemies who have rallied to bring down the mighty Ming Dynasty.

So: over to Siobhan and Pierre…

This week in Asian Review of Books

See the Asian Review of Books for ever-interesting discussion. Here are links to its newest reviews, excerpts, letters, essays, listings, translations, news items, and round ups:

Behind the Isle: Translating Yi Lu’s Poetry by Fiona Sze-Lorrain
India’s War: World War II and the Making of Modern South Asia by Srinath Raghavan reviewed by Nigel Collett
Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens by Laszlo Krasznahorkai, translated by Ottilie Mulzet reviewed by Peter Gordon
Revolution in the City of Heroes by Suhario Padmodiwiryo, translated by Frank Palmos reviewed by Tim Hannigan

500 words from Jeffrey Wasserstrom

500 words from...is a series of guest posts from authors writing about Asia, or published by Asia-based, or Asia-focused, publishing houses, in which they talk about their latest books. Here Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a California-based historian of modern China, discusses Eight Juxtapositions: China Through Imperfect Analogies. This uses eight experimental and imperfect analogies to challenge readers to think about China in new ways. The analogies touch on everybody from Pope Francis to Xi Jinping to Mark Twain, with stop-offs everywhere from Manchukuo, to Tiananmen Square, to the Berlin Wall, to the Sistine Chapel.

So: Over to Jeff…

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter and happy Easter reading from Asian Books Blog.

FORDEC by Chantal Jauvin

As announced in February, the winner of the Asian Books Blog Book of the Lunar Year in the Year of the Ram / Goat, was The Boy with a Bamboo Heart, by Dr. Amporn Wathanavongs with Chantal Jauvin, published by Maverick House (Ireland). The book is an account of Dr. Amporn’s life.  He is today one of Thailand's most generous benefactors – but he didn’t have an easy start to life.