Category: Other Asian 5 out of 5s

Lisa See’s — China dolls

In the 1930s Grace escapes from her abusive father to follow her dream of becoming a star in San Francisco. She meets Helen, and drags her to an audition where they encounter Ruby. The three become fast friends, but all are hiding secrets from their past and are jealous when one becomes more successful than the other. Truths cannot be hidden forever, especially once U.S.A. becomes involved in WW11. Will they remain friends through their triumphs and tragedies?

Yoko Ogawa’s — Hotel Iris

Mari quits school after her father’s death to help her demanding mother run the Hotel Iris. Behind the reception desk she witnesses a prostitute scream abuse and storm out of the hotel, then hears the voice of the man from the hotel room and is intrigued. She spots him in the street one day and follows.

There are rumours about this man — that he killed his wife, but Mari can’t quell her attraction. Will she be safe with a man so much older than her? Will the rumours prove true? Or will something darker occur?

Read the Guardian’s review on the book cover — this is absolutely true of this macabre tale that I couldn’t put down.

Tan Than Eng’s — The garden of evening mist *****

Yun Ling is the only survivor from a hidden Japanese prison camp in Malaya’s highlands during the second world war. Trying to swallow her hatred of the Japanese, she becomes an apprentice to the skilled Aritomo to learn the techniques of creating a Japanese garden she wishes to dedicate to the sister she lost in the prison camp. But there are secrets she wants to uncover — where was the prison camp she was locked up in for over three years? Where are her sister’s bones? Why has Aritomo never returned to Japan?

This is an insight into Malay before independence and its struggles to overcome WWII and the internal fighting after the war as well as principles in designing a Japanese garden.

Jeff Talarigo’s — Pearl Diver

In the late 1940s the youngest pearl diver works on Shodo Island. But four years after diving off the waters of Japan, she’s rejected by her family and society when she contracts leprosy. Sent to a leper colony on Nagashina Island, her disease doesn’t spread once a new medicine is discovered, but can she regain her freedom to live a normal life again?