A superb account of how European imperialism in Asia was undermined by a network of ingenious radicals, who used printing presses, global travel and the colonisers' languages to spread their... read more
A memoir of youth in Henan province and the liberating power of the pen, by a prolific Chinese writer still relatively little known in this country, despite a festoon of international prizes... read more
Culinary archaeology following the trails of ancient maritime trade through Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Iran and the Emirates. Transporting stuff.
Takes the reader from the earliest written accounts to the present in vivid portraits. The empress Masako is there, and presumably princess Murasaki Shikibu, whose diary is not only fascina... read more
Eight decades of Japanese architecture and design, approached chronologically. More illustrations than there are pages; the author has spent four of these decades based in Japan.
Vintage Japanese crime fiction, by a master of the genre, first published in 1950: the head of a clan leaves a very peculiar will, and its reading is followed by a series of unusual murders.
Somerset Maugham appears as one of two narrators in this atmospheric novel of love, truth, secrecy and betrayal in 1920s' colonial Penang. Eng's airy storytelling is a rare gift: he gives hi... read more
A fine illustrated survey from the prehistoric to the present that looks at the interplay between different parts of Asia and also with the rest of the world.
The tricky business of merging the inner world with the outer - a balancing act that the generous Iyer has been practising for decades now, in Tibet, Japan, Korea, Iran and elsewhere.