Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski [in Washington Post]
Even with a protagonist who shares the author's name, as well as various biographical similarities, Mischa Berlinski's first book is indeed a work of fiction: "None of this stuff happened to anyone," he insists in the...
Tarun Tejpal's debut novel, The Alchemy of Desire, begins and ends with the same words - but with a completely different meaning by book's end. Over the course of 518 pages, an unnamed writer takes a...
The third adventure in the entertaining
Two American GIs stationed in Korea get caught up in a complicated casino robbery – and the layers only thicken from there. ‘Course, where there are GIs, there are prostitutes – don’t...
A must-read novel about a Filipino Native American hapa Vietnam War veteran whose disturbing journal “entrys” are juxtaposed with more reliable, objective narration. How the story plays out keeps you on the edge of your seat,...
Nineteen years after her twin’s unsolved disappearance, Mara Dunn finds her sister’s camera in a junk sale. Its final roll of film – of rare orchids – offers a definitive path of clues. With...
A pseudonymously penned mystery thriller from the chronicler of the early Filipino American experience, this "lost" work ironically follows the lives of three non-Filipinos. Nevertheless, Hau and Anderson establish the work as...
Confession time: I was ready to hate these – those names, for heaven’s sake! But how entertaining – and empowering – to have a hapa Chinese American girl, Agatha Wong, and her...
Perfect beach read: A father arrives in NYC to visit his estranged daughter and stumbles onto a murder for which his daughter is arrested as the prime suspect. Little by little, he must not...
Confession: I’m an utter Ishiguro groupie. His latest novel makes me only more obsessed, even as it completely creeps me out. Hailsham (halcyon? sham? ) is the English countryside boarding...
In the small, conservative town of Kanewai, on Oahu, Hawaii, mischievous messages start mysteriously appearing on the walls of the old town movie theater slotted for demolition. Tensions rise as...
From the author of the devastating
In the latest installment in the Rei Shimura mystery series, Massey brings her hapa Japanese American heroine to Washington, DC, where she is designing a sleek fusion restaurant. Her political socialite cousin suddenly goes...
Written by a British Chinese author, Bridge pulls the reader in bit by bit, almost like unraveling a mystery. At the book’s core is the relationship between a young Chinese student living in London...
A Yellow 'Country of Origin'
Technically, writer Don Lee is a third-generation Korean American. But he was born in Tokyo where his father was working for the U.S. State Department. Then after moving...
Sabina Murray’s PEN/Faulkner Follow-Up: ‘A Carnivore’s Inquiry’
With last year’s prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award for her stunning short story collection, The Caprices, in hand, Sabina Murray is looking at her career through new eyes:...
Get ready to turn on all the lights, crawl into bed, and not get any sleep because the sequel to
The latest novel from the screenwriter of the Oscar-nominated My Beautiful Launderette, about an older famous writer who is given the chance to trade his weathered body for something much younger and healthier… but youth can...
Young Kenji avoids college by working as a "nightlife guide" for foreign tourists through the sleazier sections of Tokyo. When he meets Frank, an overweight American who hires him for...
OK, this one is really odd – but, nevertheless, hard to put down. Yuki's a freelance finance writer whose older brother is found in a decomposing heap. On her way to her parents' home when she...