BookDragon War Tag

Beirut 1990: Snapshots of a Civil War by Sylvain Ricard, Bruno Ricard, illustrated by Christophe Gaultier, translated by Anna Provitola, edited by Alex Donoghue

27 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, European, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Lebanese, Memoir, Nonfiction, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Almost a quarter century has passed since two French brothers – in their early 20s at the time – decided to visit their Aunt Thérèse in Lebanon. In September 1990, the country is a 15-year-old war zone, but the brothers plan to deliver supplies, medicine, and a...

Black Flower by Young-ha Kim, translated by Charles La Shure

25 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Korean, Latin American, Translation

Earlier this year, I received an email from a Chinese Canadian author, May Q. Wong, inquiring about "a shipload of Koreans who sailed to Mexico to find a better life." Clueless, I forwarded her request to a few of my scholar friends and colleagues ...

The Rent Collector by Camron Wright

23 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Cambodian, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Southeast Asian

Allow me to begin with an intriguing tidbit and a cringe-inducing warning ...

Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang, color by Lark Pien

20 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Young Adult Readers

In 2006, Gene Luen Yang made major literary headlines when his then-debut, American Born Chinese, became (not without controversy, ahem!) the first-ever graphic novel nominated for a National Book Award. [Click here for my 2007 post-NBA interview with Yang.] Released earlier this month, Yang's two-volume Boxers &...

Author Interview: Kim Thúy [in Bloom]

18 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Memoir, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Translation, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American

Kim Thúy is one tough writer to get to, although she declares in our first email exchange when I finally track her down, “I am not at all the kind who plays hard to get :-) .” Attempts to contact her included pleas to both her...

Author Profile: Kim Thúy [in Bloom]

16 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Memoir, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Translation, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American

Kim Thúy’s Ru: An Apple for the Reader Ah, well . . . better start with true confessions: my words appear on the back cover of the U.S. edition (at least the first printing) of Vietnamese Canadian author Kim Thúy’s debut novel, Ru. The blurb is...

The Caretaker by A.X. Ahmad

05 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, South Asian, South Asian American

For you DC-area-locals who were wondering, debut novelist A.X. Ahmad is one of us ...

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

28 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction

"We are on our way to Budapest," 10-year-old Darling announces as NoViolet Bulawayo’s 2013 Booker longlisted debut novel opens. 'We' includes "Bastard and Chipo and Godknows and Sbho and Stina," banded together with plans to steal guavas as they sneak out of Paradise, the ironically named...

Avatar: The Last Airbender | The Search (Parts Two and Three) created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, script by Gene Luen Yang, art by Gurihiru, lettering by Michael Heisler

23 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers

Okay, for the latest full Avatar experience, might I suggest you do a bit of catch-up homework first: To find out what prompts this eponymous ‘search,’ you’ll need to read the three-part Promise which reveals why family relationships matters so much, especially to Aang and Zuko; then...

Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron

21 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Even before Naomi Benaron's debut novel hit shelves last year, it earned a substantial literary gold sticker as the winner of the biennial 2010 Bellwether Prize – the largest monetary award for unpublished fiction in North America, which was rebranded in 2011 as the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially...

An Infidel in Paradise by S.J. Laidlaw

13 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Canadian, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Pakistani, Young Adult Readers

Emma is hardly the typical Canadian teenager. At 16, she's lived all over the world, thanks to her career diplomat mother, who Emma currently blames for all the latest terrible events in her life: she's in yet another new country – this time Pakistan with some...

The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya

25 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Audio, Indian, South Asian

Before you begin The Watch, allow me to offer a few details about Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya's writerly preparations you won't find in the book. Although his ending "Acknowledgements" includes candid gratitude to numerous members of the U.S. military, the interview attached to the press materials sent with his title...

The Servant by Fatima Sharafeddine, translated by Fatima Sharafeddine

24 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Arab, Fiction, Lebanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

At 15, Faten is uprooted from her village life to become a live-in servant to a wealthy family in Beirut, where violence from the ongoing Lebanese Civil War seems neverending. Her father's decision to pull her out of school, to indenture her away from all...

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

17 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Fiction

Before this novel, Khaled Hosseini's third, even hit shelves on May 21, the world had already made it a bestseller; many months – more likely years – will pass before it fades from the international spotlight. Although I had the galley for months before, I kept it...

The Blind Man’s Garden by Nadeem Aslam + Author Interview [in Bookslut]

01 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Author Interview/Profile, British, British Asian, Fiction, Pakistani, Repost

From the opening few pages of reading a Nadeem Aslam novel, I knew his writing was something to treasure and behold. Serendipitously, I used my then-day job to bring the Pakistan-born, British-educated-and-domiciled Aslam over the Pond to be a featured guest at the then-annual South...

Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon [in Library Journal]

04 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Repost, South American

* STARRED REVIEW After surviving the Korean War, Yohan spends another year in a prisoner-of-war camp south of the new border that splits the country in two. Rather than return north, where no one awaits him, Yohan begins life anew in a faraway coastal Brazilian village as...

On Sal Mal Lane by Ru Freeman [in Library Journal]

03 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Sri Lankan, Sri Lankan American

* STARRED REVIEW As in Ru Freeman’s absorbing 2009 debut, A Disobedient Girl, the intricate lives of young children also take center stage in this latest work. In 1979, the titular Sal Mal Lane is a cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Sri Lanka’s largest city and former...

The World Is a Carpet: Four Seasons in an Afghan Village by Anna Badkhen [in Christian Science Monitor]

30 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, British, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

When you Google journalist Anna Badkhen, the one repeating line you’ll encounter is this: “Anna Badkhen writes about people in extremis.” To do so, she’s “spent [her] adult life in motion of one sort or another in the war-wrecked hinterlands of Central Asia, Arabia, Africa.” Badkhen...

Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

30 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Iraqi, Nonethnic-specific

Perhaps I just need to stay away from award-winning bestsellers. But sometimes, my curiosity over all those stickers, prizes, and multiplying sales just can't be contained ...

The Blind Man’s Garden by Nadeem Aslam

16 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, British, British Asian, Fiction, Pakistani

Who needs films when writers like Nadeem Aslam can create such eloquent canvases that no celluloid could ever hope to project? Blind Man's Garden takes you deep into the tragic 'war on terror' and shows you the very lives of the individuals who must live...