Books Set in Asia; India

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters, by Balli Kaur Jaswal (2019)

Read:  July 4, 2025

4 Stars

Books Set in Asia, Japan

The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoki Ogawa (2003)

Read: March 22, 2025

3 Stars

Books Set in Asia, India

The Daughters of Madurai, by Rajasree Variyar (2023)

This novel is about a mother and daughter relationship, but mostly focuses on the mother’s life growing up poor in Madurai, India.  The story takes place in the present (daughter’s story) and in the 1990s (mother’s life).

Janani, the mother was born into a poor family in a lower caste.  After being married young in an arranged marriage, Janani was sent away from her family to live with her husband and his family.  As a new wife, she was basically her new family’s servant.  She lives in a culture that does not value girls.  Her first baby is a girl, which Janani is “allowed” to keep, but her subsequent daughters are taken from her and killed.  Janani struggles with her loss, as well as being trapped in a loveless marriage with a cruel mother-in-law.  It sounds cliché, but as written, Janani’s life comes alive.

Jump to present day, and Janani is married and living in Australia with her husband and children, including Nila, her now-adult daughter.  Janani has never shared her past with her children.  When her father-in-law- is dying, Janani and the family return to India to see him.  The trip sparks memories of the past, which slowly reveals itself.

I found this book somewhat difficult to read due to the names and nicknames of the characters.

Read:  April 1, 2024

3 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Jeddah, Saudia Arabia

Finding Nouf, by Zoe Ferraris (2007)

Read:  December 25, 2023

4.5 Stars

Books Set in Asia and North America: Pakistan, Iraq, and San Francisco, California

The Bad Muslim Discount, by Syed M Masood (2021)

This novel follows two Muslim families who immigrated to the San Francisco from Islamic countries.  Anvar Faris’ family left Karachi, Pakistan in the mid-1990s when fundamentalism begins to take over their country.  Safwa, a young girl living in war-torn Baghdad, Iraq, illegally escapes with her father to the United States.

 

Anvar’s mother is a deeply devout Muslim, but his father is more laid-back.  Anvar’s mother and older brother easily settle into California and into its Muslim community.  His father, however, finds the community a bit more difficult.  All is well until 9-11.  Anvar’s brother is the “good” Muslim in the family.  He goes to mosque, prays five times a day, doesn’t smoke or drink and becomes engaged to a women chosen by his parents.  Anvar, however, it the “bad” Muslim.  He drinks, sleeps with women and goes to mosque only when his mother insists.

 

In college, Anvar meets and falls in love with Zuha Shah.  Although they part ways, Anvar never stops loving her.  He isn’t as religious as Zuha and settles for being a “bad” Muslim.

 

Meanwhile, Safwa is living with an abusive father and confined to her house in Baghdad.  Her father then was abducted by Americans during the Iraq War, and she was left along with her brother who was dying of a terminal illness.  As the war drew closer to her home, she was forced to flee to Basra.  Ultimately her father was released, and they were reunited.  His abuse, however, continued.  Enter Oais, an evil villager.  He offers Safwa and her father an opportunity to escape to the United States, but at a terrible price.

 

Safwa and her father begin a new life with new names in San Francisco.  Safwa is now known as Azza.  As it happens, they live in the same apartment building as Anvar.  The landlord has a tender heart and gives people in need what he calls a “good Muslim discount” on the rent.  Anvar and Azza begin a relationship, but from her perspective, it is a way to escape the violence inflicted upon her by her father.

 

This novel explores faith and geopolitical issues through the eyes of the lens of Muslim Americans.  The author points out that Muslims have been a part of American fabric throughout the history’s country.

 

I loved this novel.

 

Read: August 2, 2023

5 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Burma

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, by Jen-Philip Sendker (2002)

This novel follows Julia Win, a young woman whose mother was American, and father was a well-known Wall Street attorney and Burmese national.  One day, when she was a child, her father ostensibly went to work and just disappeared.  Julia and her family knew nothing of her father’s life before he arrived in America.  He never shared his early life with his wife.  They only know that he was born and raised in Burma.

Years later, Julia finds an old love letter, written by her father to an unknown woman named Mi Mi.  She decides travel to Burma to seek out this mysterious woman.  Julia travels to a remote village in Burma that was once her father’s hometown.  There she meets a strange old man who tells her he has been waiting for her.  He tells her that his name is U Ba and that he knew Tin Win, Julia’s father.

U Ba proceeds to fill in the details of Tin Win’s early life.  An orphan at a young age, he was raised by a widowed aunt.  When he was 10 years old, he suddenly went blind.  His aunt took him to a monastery where he was taught to follow the wisdom of his heart.  He meets Mi Mi, who was born with deformed feet and can only scuttle around on all fours.  They immediately fall in love, and with their disabilities, form a magical ability to feel with their other senses.  After Tin Win regains his eyesight, he finds himself in America where he marries and has a family.  He never lost his love for Mi Mi, however.

This is a beautiful novel with some intriguing philosophical ideologies.

Read:  July 7, 2023

3 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok Wakes to Rain, by Pitchaya Sudbanthad (2019)

 

Bangkok Wakes to Rain is a series of interconnected vignettes that take place mostly in Bangkok, Thailand.  The stories go back and forth in time from the late 1800s to the present day.  One story line follows Phineas Stevens, an American missionary doctor who initially feels lost in a culture he does not understand.  Then there is Sammy, son of a Thai mother and British father.  When his parents divorce, he goes to live with his father and new wife in England.  His mother retains the family estate in Bangkok.  When the house becomes too much for her to manage, she contemplates converting it into condos.

 

On one of his visits to see his mother in Bangkok, Sammy begins a relationship with Nee.  As a university student in the 1970s, she participated in the government protests.  She was traumatized by the military’s shooting of the student demonstrators.  Her sister, Nok, had left Thailand and became a restauranteur.  She served authentic Thai food.  One of her patrons was a Thai military officer who was actively behind some of the protests of the 1970s.  This puts her at odds with her sister.

 

There are many other quirky characters, each with his or her own views and experiences of living in Thailand’s bustling city of Bangkok.  The stories slowly weave together a picture of Thailand and Bangkok throughout the last century.

 

Read:  September 20, 2022

 

3.5 Stars

 

 

 

Books Set in Asia; China

The Moon in the Palace, by Weina Dai Randel (2016)

 

This novel takes place in China in the 7^th Century and follows palace intrigue in the court of Emperor Taisong.  The novel is the first in a series and follows young Mei as she enters the court.  As a naïve young girl, she must learn quickly who she can trust and who can help her achieve what she believes to be her destiny ~ to become a great leader.

 

I found the first part of the book to be interesting, but the novel took way too long before anything of any real important to happen.  I won’t be continuing in this series.

 

Read:  February 2022

 

2 Stars

 

Books Set in Asia; Pegu

The Jewel Trader of Pegu, by Jeffrey Hantover (2008)

 

In the late 1500s, Abraham, a young, widowed Jewish trader, traveled from the ghetto of Venice to seek jewels in Southeast Asia to send back to his uncle in Italy.  He traveled to Pegu, a kingdom in Burma, where he encounters a way of life vastly different from the one in which he grew up.  The novel is written mostly in letter form that Abraham sends to his cousin in Venice.  Abraham describes the lush jungle of Pegu and the people and the customs, as well as his struggles with keeping up his religious practices.

 

He found that the local people are tolerant of foreigners, and he resides in a house that had previously been occupied by another Italian trader.  Abraham is not the only European in Pegu.  Jesuit priest have come to convert the Buddhist to Christianity.  The Jesuits treat Abraham with scorn, but the local population he encounters are tolerant, although somewhat mystified by Abraham’s religious practices.

 

Abraham is fascinated by some of the local customs but is horrified to learn that it is a practice for foreigners to sleep with a bride-to-be on her wedding day, before sleeping with her husband.  Abraham at first resists this honor, but ultimately succumbs to this practice, although not without his coming to grips with his moral dilemma.

 

Young Mya entered the town to marry, but first was given to Abraham.  The next morning, her groom failed to come for her.  He had overindulged the night before and died, leaving Mya a widow.  Abraham allows her to stay in his house, and soon falls in love with her.

 

Abraham works with Win, a local broker, and as they become friends, they discuss their religious and cultural differences.  They respect each other’s differences and form a strong bond, which will help them both during the pending uprising.  Abraham realizes that, as a Jew, he has far more freedom in Pegu than he had in Italy, despite the cruelty of the Peguian king.

 

Pegu and a rival kingdom begin a violent war.  Abraham realizes that he must depart, but not without Mya, whom he as entered into a common-law marriage.  She is pregnant, so he doesn’t want to return to Italy until after the birth of their child.  They depart for deep into the country.  On the journey, Abraham becomes ill and dies, leaving a young, pregnant wife in the care of Win.

 

I enjoyed this novel.  The author provided vivid descriptions of the country as it existed so many years ago.

 

Read:  November 21, 2021

 

4 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Siberia, Russia and North America: New York, New York.

The Nesting Dolls, by Alina Adams (2020)

 

The Nesting Dolls focuses on three Jewish women: Daria (from 1931 to 1942), Natasha (from 1970 to 1991) and Zoe (1991).  Daria is Zoe’s great-grandmother, who was born in Russia and married the talented musician, Edward Gordon.  They and their two young daughters were sent to Siberia for a minor infraction during the Stalin years.  The janitor, Adam, of their building was also deported to Siberia.  He had a reputation for having reported on his mother for her infractions, thus was feared.  He ostensibly was being deported for not having reported Daria’s family to the authorities.  In Siberian village, however, he was granted better quarters than most if its occupants.  Adam would come to play a vital and integral role in saving Daria’s family.

 

We then skip a generation to Natasha, Daria’s granddaughter.  The family was now living in Odessa.  Natasha had a brilliant mind for mathematics and was hoping to attend the prestigious Odessa University.  Sadly, the quota for Jews was filled and Natasha was giving failing marks on her entrance exams.  She had to settle for a mediocre school and was then given a job teaching math to junior high students.  Her childhood friend, Boris, had always been in love with her, but she took him for granted.  One day she met Dima, a refusenik, who convinced her that she could be instrumental in letting the outside world know about the atrocities going on in Russia.  Natasha fell in love with Dima, and soon finds herself pregnant.  Her only way out was to marry Boris who, while being seemingly apolitical, was able to gain passage out of the USSR.

 

Finally, we meet Zoe, Natasha’s granddaughter.  She was born in America but bears the burdens and guilt imposed upon her by her grandmother and great-grandmother.  Like them, she, too, has two men in her life and must choose between what she believes is best for her family and what is best for herself.

 

Each of the three women are encased in each other’s lives, much like the nesting dolls that Russia is famous for.  Life does not always give you want you think you want, but it just might give you what you need.

 

I loved this novel.  I really felt the characters come alive.  I also loved how the author skipped a gereration and focused on the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Daria, the initial character.

 

Read:  June 15, 2021

 

5 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Jaipur, India

The Henna Artist, by Alka Joshi (2020)

 

At age 17, Lakshmi Shastri left her abusive husband and set off to fend for herself.  She had been forced into an arranged marriage at age 15.  As was the custom, she moved into her husband’s home.  She had a loving relationship with her mother-in-law who taught her traditional herbal medicine.  Her husband, however, beat her often, thus, she felt she had to leave him to save her life.

 

Thirteen years later, she was living in Jaipur, a city in northern India, where she was a successful henna artist.  Life was good.  She cast herself as a young widow and set up business as a henna artist.  She had learned the trade while living in Agra with “pleasure” women.  In Jaipur, she had many high-caste clients and was earning enough money to build herself a home.  Her intricate designs provided her with top dollar fees.  She had visions of contacting her parents and having them live with her.

 

The husband of one of her clients had many mistresses.  Lakshmi supplemented her income selling him and others herbal sachets that would make babies disappear.

 

One day, out of the blue, her estranged husband appeared at her doorstep with a young girl in tow.  Shortly after Lakshmi left her husband, her parents had another child, Radha.  Lakshmi had no idea that she had a younger sister, who had been deemed the Bad Luck Girl in her hometown.  These unexpected visitors have the potential to turn Laskhmi’s life upside down.

 

I enjoyed this book.  It showed a small slice of life in India in the 1950s and the struggles a woman had while trying to live on her own.  The novel’s ending, however, was a bit too pat.  Everything was all resolved in an amicable way.

 

Read:  February 6, 2021

 

4 Stars

 

 

Books Set in Asia: Japan: Tokyo

Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (2015)

 

In a tiny obscure basement café in a small alley in Tokyo, you can get a cup of coffee and maybe some food.  Legend has it that you can order a cup of coffee and travel in time.  The café is small and can serve only a few customers at a time.  At the table in the corner, you will find a woman in a white dress who is drinking coffee and reading a book.  

 

One summer, four customers seek to try their luck with the legend.  Time travel, however, has very strict rules.  Travel in time cannot change the present.  One can only go back in time to meet someone who had previously been a customer at the café; one must sit in a specific chair during the entire journey; and one must drink a cup of coffee before it gets cold.  The woman in the white dress is the ghost of the person who allowed her coffee to get cold.

 

As we meet the four “time travelers”, we learn their stories and the reasons for wanting to take this magical journey.  Their stories are intertwined.  Hirai left her family’s business to find freedom in Tokyo.  She has been avoiding her sister for years, but suddenly finds herself needing to have an urgent conversation with her.  Kohtake wants one more conversation with her husband before Alzheimer’s takes his memory of her.

 

This is a delightful little novel.

 

Read:  February 3, 2021

4.5 Stars

Books Set in Asia and North America: Sri Lanka and California

What Lies Between Us, by Nayomi Munaweera (2016)

 

This novel is narrated by a young woman who was born in Sri Lanka during a tumultuous political period of war.  Her father was the son of a wealthy family and her mother was of a poor family.  Her father was light-skinned, but her mother was dark.  Although her father’s family had little to do with her, she grew up in a loving family, surrounded by servants.  One of the servants, Samson, who worked as a gardener, was one of her childhood’s closest friends.

 

As a young teen, however, her life is transformed by events that she dares not speak of.  She has memories of being molested that are closely associated with Samson.  One night, during a monsoon, her father goes to confront Samson.  That same night, her father mysteriously disappears.  His body is found several days later, ostensibly having been drowned in the monsoon.  Samson soon disappears also.  After her father death, she and her mother immigrate to America to live with her mother’s sister and her family.

 

Although our narrator was light-skinned in Sri Lanka, in California, she suddenly finds herself dark-skinned.  This is just one of her adjustments living in her new country.  She adjusts, attends college and becomes a nurse.  She is still a bit of a loner and has dispensed with all thoughts of finding love due to her foreign status.  Then she meets Daniel and falls deeply in love.  

 

They marry and, although, they had not planned to have children, but when she discovers she realized that she wants a child.  Daniel initially says that he doesn’t want a child and she agrees to an abortion.  At the last minute, Daniel changes his mind, and they have a beautiful daughter.  The secrets she has suppressed since childhood, however, bubble to the surface.  As Daniel grows close to the baby, our narrator has traumatic nightmares of her childhood.  She fears for her daughter and makes the ultimate sacrifice.

 

 

In addition to an intriguing tale, this novel provides a beautiful view of Sri Lanka.

 

Read:  January 29, 2021

 

4 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Afghanistan

The Opium Prince, by Jasmine Aimaq (2020)

 

This novel takes place in the late 1970 in Afghanistan, shortly before the Russian invasion.  Daniel Abdullah Sajadi was the son of an Afghani war lord and an American mother.  After his mother leaves her husband, and his father is thrown in jail, Daniel was raised by his father’s friend, Sherzia.

 

Daniel left Afghanistan to attend college in the United States, where he met and married Rebecca.  After college, he landed a job with the United States government to head a program called USADE, designed to eradicating the poppy fields.  This job led him back to Afghanistan.

 

While traveling in the countryside one day with his wife, he accidently hit and killed a young nomadic Kochi child.  He turns himself in to the local police authorities where he was let off with a small fine.  The nomadic tribes were not viewed as people by the authorities.  Additionally, at the same time a man named Taj Maleki seemingly intervened to help Daniel negotiate with the young girl’s family.  Only later do we learn that Taj and recently purchased the young girl from her family telling them that she would have a better life with him.

 

Taj was a powerful opium khan, who attempted to blackmail Daniel to prevent Daniel from defoliating his poppy fields.  Daniel remained haunted by the death of the young girl and is an easy target for Taj.  Daniel is torn between wanting to eradicate the poppy fields, yet not be caught in Taj’s trap.  Because Daniel lost his parents as a young boy, he has idolized his father who he believed to be a great man in Afghanistan (he had little memory of his mother).

 

This novel focuses on the opium trade in Afghanistan and how it infiltrates so much of the country’s war economy.  The government wants to destroy the opium trade, and yet the entire world is so wrapped up in its addiction.  The novel emphasizes the power struggles of the opium kings, the government, the religious leaders and the Communists.  When Russia does invade Afghanistan, the whole world shifts for Daniel.

 

This is an amazing novel.

 

Read:  January 17, 2021

 

5 Stars

 

 

 

Books Set in Asia and Europe: Iran and England

The Saffron Kitchen, by Yasmin Crowther (2006)

 

Maryam Mazer was born and raised in a small village in Iran in a wealthy family.  Her father was a general in the Shah’s army.  She grew up in a somewhat traditional family where women were expected to marry a man selected by the father.  When she is 16, her father found a man for her to marry, but Maryam had other ideas.  She dreamt of being a nurse and helping people.

 

Her closest childhood friend was Ali, her father’s servant.  He grew up in a very tiny village and taught himself to read.  In Maryam’s family, he became her father’s confident and secretary, however, he was treated as a servant.

 

When the Iranian Revolution, Maryam found herself in the middle of a family tragedy and was sent to Tehran, and ultimately to London.  Maryam had ventured from her home during rioting in her village.  Ali saw her and brought her to his apartment until it was safe for her to return the next day.  Her father assumed that she had slept with Ali, and thus shamed the family’s name.  He disowned her; but allowed her to go to Tehran to pursue her nursing dreams.  She left, knowing that Ali had been beaten within an inch of his life by here father’s men.

 

In London, she met Edward, who became her devoted husband, and they had a daughter, Sara.  She had what seemed to be a perfect life.  She would occasionally return to Iran to visit family.  When her last living sister died, however, her 12-year-old nephew, Saeed, was sent to London to live with Maryam and Edward.

 

Saeed had difficulty settling life in London.  His presence in Maryam’s household opened the floodgates to her memories of Iran, which she had suppressed for years.  She believed that the only way to face her demons would be to return to Iran and to the tiny village where she had spent many pleasant summers as a child.  Ali was still living there, waiting for her return.

 

The book goes back and forth between Maryam and her grown daughter, Sara.  Sara’s life was only in England, but she knows of her Iranian roots.  The novel slowly peels back the layers of Maryam’s life so that we understand what brought her to London and back to Iran.

 

Read: January 14, 2021

 

4.5 Stars

 

Books Set in Asia: China, Shanghai

The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties that Helped Create Modern China, by Jonathan Kaufman (2020)

 

This book is about the Sassoon family and the Kadoorie family, both from Baghdad, Iraq, who built tremendous business empires in Shanghai, China.  They arrived in Shanghai at a time when was becoming an international city.  Europeans were beginning their colonization of the city.

 

The Sassoons were a wealthy business family in Iraq, but due to political influences in the early 1880s moved their enterprise, first to India, and then to China.  They increased they wealth in the Opium Wars.  This book gave a clear explanation of the origins of the Opium War, and how the Western world help to feed and exploit the opium trade in China.

 

The Kadoorie family arrived in Shanghai a few decades after the Sassoons.  They built their empire from the ground up.  They opened up lavish hotels and began one of the largest electric companies in the country.

 

During World War II, the Kadoories build shelter and fed numerous Jews fleeing from Nazi Germany.  China was one of the very few countries open to Jews during this period.  The city also came under Japanese occupation during the War.  The families survived through this occupation and then sided with Chiang Kai-Shek as the Nationalist and Communist faced each other.  Ultimately, Communism won and the two families lost virtually everything.

 

It was an interesting slice of history.  I wish this book had been published a few years earlier and I could have read it prior to my visit to Shanghai.

 

Read:  September 17, 2020

 

3.5 Stars

Books Set in Australia and Asia; China

The Song of the Jade Lily, by Kirsty Manning (2019)

This historical novel jumps back and forth between the present (2016) and the late 1930s’ through the end of World War II.  In the present, Alexandra Laird has a high-powered job with a financial company in London and has sought a transfer to Shanghai.  The transfer request was for three reasons: to escape part escape from a bad break-up; to be closer to her grandparents who live in Australia; and to learn about her birth mother who had been born in Shanghai.  Alexandra’s parents were killed when she was very young had had been raised by her grandparents, Romy and Wilhem Cohen.  Alexandra’s mother was ostensibly adopted and was of Chinese ancestry.  She is curious about her mother’s origins, but her grandparents have been very secretive about her past.

In flashbacks, we meet Alexandra’s grandmother, Romy.  Twelve-year-old Romy and her parents, who were Jews, fled Vienna shortly after Kristallnacht and made their way to Shanghai.  China was one of the few countries in the 1930 that was accepting Jewish immigrants.  They were not, apparently, practicing Jews in China, but their religious affiliation was not a problem in China.

In Shanghai, Romy met Li Ho, a beautiful young girl who is Romy’s age and the two become fast friends.  Li Ho’s father was a doctor in Eastern medicine, which intrigued Romy.  She picked up some herbal treatment methods, which she employed throughout her life.

Initially, Shanghai was safe.  In the 1930s it was a major international city.  Late in World War II, however, Shanghai fell under Japanese control and the city became very dangerous.  There are parallels between the brutish treatment of the Nazi’s towards the Jews and the Japanese soldiers’ treatment of the Chinese.  Li’s parents were active in the resistance, which lead to a tragic result.  Li and her brother then had to take whatever steps necessary to survive.

The description so Shanghai bring the city to life with its sight and smells.  Unfortunately, the characters are lacking and are not fully developed.  Alexandra too quickly falls into a new relationship that doesn’t quite fit as described in the novel.

The novel was a very quick read, although it could have used a better editor.  There were several places where the author repeated herself.  The twist at the end, however, made the book a worthwhile read.

Read:  May 25, 2020

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe and Asia: Turkey

The Towers of Trebizond, by Rose Macaulay (1956)

The Towers of Trebizond, by Rose Macaulay is a very amusing book that is partly autobiographical.  It follows the adventures of Laurie, the narrator; her eccentric Aunt Dot; an Anglican Priest; and a camel.  They trek from Istanbul to Trebizond, partly by vehicle, partly by foot and camel.  Aunt Dot’s primary focus seems to be converting the women she meets along the way to Anglicanism, believing this will liberate the women from the confines of Islam.

Along the way, they meet all sorts of interesting characters, including Seventh Day Adventists, Billy Graham on tour, Turkish policemen and British travel writers.  In their travels, they come perilously close to the Russian border.  The priest is hesitant to cross into Russia on the grounds that it would be perceived as condoning a country that persecutes Christians.  Aunt Dot convinces him otherwise, noting that even in Britain there are elements of the government that one need not agree with.

While Aunt Dot and the priest explore Russia, Laurie remains in Turkey with the camel.  While on her own, Laurie begins her search into her Anglican faith.  She is left alone with her thoughts of faith and the conflict about her love affair with a married man.

Having traveled through Turkey, albeit not a camel, I found the author’s descriptions of places fascinating.  Despite there being 50 years between when this book took place and my visit to the country, I still recognized facets of Turkish life.

Read: December 2019

4 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Korea

The Island of Sea Women, by Lisa Sea (2019)

For centuries on the island of Jeju, off the southern coast of Korea, the women have been the main source of income for their families by diving to gather shellfish, abalone and sea urchins.  These women, known as haenyeo, learn how to dive deep into the ocean, without the benefit of diving equipment to gather their harvest.

This novel follows two such divers from their budding friendship in the 1930s through island’s uprising in the late 1940s and the Korean occupation.  Young-souk was taught the art of diving from her mother, who was the head of the women’s diving collective.  Her friend, Mi-ja was the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, hence, suspect.  Her mother died giving birth to Mi-ja, and she was pawned off to live with in aunt and uncle who lived in Young-souk’s village.

The novel describes the hardships, yet joy, that comes from the diving.  The women are the main breadwinners of the family, while husbands stay home with the children, and drinking or gambling their wives hard earned money.

Life of the haenyeo is not easy, as the sea can easily take a life it the diver is not careful.  The life, however, has its long traditions, which are carefully observed and treasured by divers.

Their life is shattered with the events taking place in the Pacific theater of World War II and its aftermath.  The novel describes the history of the divided Korea, as seen from the inhabitants of the Island.

In parallel, Young-souk and Mi-ja reach marriageable age during this time.  Tainted by the sins of her father, Mi-ja fears she will not find a suitable husband.  She is suddenly married off to the handsome and wealthy son of another Japanese collaborator.  Young-souk, to is married, but to the son of her mother’s best friend.  Young-souk works to help pay for her husband’s education.  He becomes a teacher, and although he would prefer his wife not to work, he knows that the sea is in her blood.

Ma-ji moves to the “big city” and changes is ways that Young-souk fails to fully appreciate.  When a tragic event occurs on the island, Young-souk breaks off all ties with Ma-ji.  Still tied to Ma-ji, however, she still secretly yearns for her friend.

I knew virtually nothing about Korea and the occupation following World War II.  This gave me an overview, which piqued my interest to research other materials for the events described in this novel.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

Read: April 10, 2019

4.5 Stars

Books Set in Asia: North Korea

The Orphan Master’s Son, by Adam Johnson (2012)

I purchase this book several years ago, but it just sat on my bookshelf until recently.  I had no idea what the book was about, so it is just serendipity that it is about North Korea, just at a time that the United States President has been meeting with the leader of that country.

The novel follow the live of Pak Jun Do, whom we first meet when he is a young boy living in a work camp orphanage.  He claims that he is not really an orphan, though ~ he claims that his mother is a beautiful singer and his father is the master of the orphanage.  Why else would his father take pains to treat him in a manner not show him special treatment among the other boys in the orphanage.

People are told what to do and learn not to question. As a young man, Jun Do catches the eye of the government and is trusted for his loyalty to the Dear Leader.  He is placed on a fishing boat even though he knows nothing of fishing.  His job on the boat is to become a professional kidnapper for the government. While on the ship, he listens on the boat’s radio and follows the adventures of two young American girls who, while rowing around the world, some into North Korean waters.

The other sailors on the boat have images of their wives tattooed on their chests.  Jun Do isn’t married, so has no such tattoo.  His shipmates decide to give him a tattoo of Sun Moon, North Korea’s most beautiful singer and actress.  She is also the wife of Commander Ga, an elite member of the Dear Leader’s inner circle and Minister of the Mines.

As the author describes North Korea, the citizens are routinely terrorized and fed propaganda through daily announcements blasted through loud speakers.  People occasionally “disappear” and the surviving spouse may be given a “replacement” spouse.

Thus, due to his tattoo of Sun Moon, Jun Do find himself her replacement husband.  Due to his new high rank in the government, he is sent on a mission the United States to meet with a Texan Senator.  This gives him ideas of defection.

Although this book is rather dark, I found in very intriguing and hard to put down.

Read:  March 21, 2019

4.5 Stars