The Greatest Books of All Time Set in Asia

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
12073 The Afghans Asne Seierstad, Seán Kinsella 2022 Norwegian English
12077 Basti Intizar Husain 1979 Pakistani Urdu
12132 The House Of The Mosque Kader Abdolah 2005 Dutch Dutch
12172 The Finest Hotel In Kabul Lyse Doucet 2025 Canadian English
12206 Apple In China Patrick McGee 2025 Unknown English
12237 I Deliver Parcels In Beijing Hu Anyan 2023 Chinese English
12326 The Fate Of The Elephant Douglas H. Chadwick 1992 American English
12564 Breakneck Dan Wang Unknown English
12622 The Missionary Movement In Christian History Andrew Walls 1996 Scottish English
12634 Shattered Lands Sam Dalrymple Unknown English
12647 Daikon Samuel Hawley Unknown English
12918 Let Only Red Flowers Bloom Emily Feng 2025 Unknown English
13017 House Of Huawei Eva Dou 2025 American English
13035 Peak Human Johan Norberg 2025 Unknown English
13039 The Highest Exam Ruixue Jia, Hongbin Li, Claire Cousineau 2025 Canadian English
13040 The Party's Interests Come First Joseph Torigian 2025 Unknown English
13362 The Travels And Researches Of Alexander Von Humboldt William MacGillivray 1832 German English
13362 The Sarashina Diary Sugawara no Takasue no Musume 1050 Japanese Classical japanese
13362 The Wild Geese Ōgai Mori 1911 Japanese Japanese
13362 A Riot Of Goldfish Kanoko Okamoto 1937 Japanese Japanese
13362 The Doctor's Wife Sawako Ariyoshi 1966 Japanese Japanese
13362 The Gate Natsume Sōseki 1910 Japanese Japanese
14025 Miss New India Bharati Mukherjee 2011 American English
14435 The Age Of Extremes Eric Hobsbawm 1994 British English
14589 The Good Girls Sonia Faleiro 2021 Indian English
14630 How Asia Works Joe Studwell 2013 British English
14677 Men Of The Old Stone Age Henry Fairfield Osborn 1915 American English
14833 The True Believer Eric Hoffer 1951 American English
14949 Freedom At Midnight Dominique Lapierre, Larry Collins 1975 Multiple English
14986 Mina's Matchbox Yōko Ogawa 2024 Japanese English
14986 The Last Mughal William Dalrymple 2006 British English
14986 The Art Of Hearing Heartbeats Jan-Philipp Sendker 2002 German German
14986 Great Japanese Stories Jay Rubin Multiple English
14986 Lady Tan’s Circle Of Women Lisa See 2023 Unknown English
14986 Absolution Alice McDermott 2023 American English
15595 Story Of Mankind Hendrik Willem van Loon 1921 American English
15844 The Earth Is The Lord's Taylor Caldwell 1940 American English
15919 The Wilder Shores Of Love Lesley Blanch 1954 British English
15919 Neo Colonialism, The Last Stage Of Imperialism Kwame Nkrumah 1965 Ghanaian English
15919 Taiko Eiji Yoshikawa 1941 Japanese Japanese
15919 Golden Earth Norman Lewis 1952 British English
16542 My Life as an Explorer Sven Hedin 1925 Swedish Swedish
16639 The Royal Road to Romance Richard Halliburton 1925 American English
16732 The Principal Navigations Richard Hakluyt 1589 British English
17171 Monstress Vol. 1 Marjorie Liu 2015 American English
17171 Plagues And People William H. McNeill 1976 American English
17171 Eastern Philosophy Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad 2005 British English
17171 A History Of Religious Ideas, Volume 2 Mircea Eliade 1982 Romanian French
17171 The Discoverers Daniel J. Boorstin 1983 American English
17171 Chop Fry Watch Learn Michelle T. King 2024 Unknown English
17171 The New India Rahul Bhatia 2024 Unknown English
17171 Private Revolutions Yuan Yang 2024 Unknown English
17171 Set My Heart On Fire Izumi Suzuki 2024 Unknown English
17171 My Beloved Life Amitava Kumar 2024 Unknown English
17171 The Struggle For Taiwan Sulmaan Khan 2024 Unknown English
17171 Shadows At Noon Joya Chatterji 2024 Unknown English
17171 The Jade Peony Wayson Choy 1995 Canadian English
17171 Burma Sahib Paul Theroux 2024 American English
17171 The City And Its Uncertain Walls Haruki Murakami 2023 Japanese Japanese
17171 Shanghailanders Juli Min 2024 Unknown English
17171 The Museum Of Failures Thrity Umrigar 2023 American English
17171 My Year Of Meat Ruth Ozeki 1998 American English
17171 The Idea Of India Sunil Khilnani 1997 Indian English
17171 Cuckold Kiran Nagarkar 1999 Indian English
17171 The Spirit Of Indian Painting B. N. Goswamy 2014 Indian English
17171 India Unbound Gurcharan Das 2000 Indian English
17171 Elementary Aspects Of Peasant Insurgency In Colonial India Ranajit Guha 1984 Indian English
17171 Certainty Madeleine Thien 2006 Canadian English
17171 The Hero's Walk Anita Rau Badami 2000 Canadian English
17171 The Time In Between David Bergen 2005 Canadian English
17171 What The Body Remembers Shauna Singh Baldwin 1999 Canadian English
17171 Cinnamon Gardens Shyam Selvadurai 1998 Sri Lankan English
17171 Once And Forever Kenji Miyazawa 1994 Japanese Japanese
17171 India John Keay 2000 British English
17171 From Plassey To Partition And After Sekhar Bandyopadhyay 2004 Indian English
17171 A Corner Of A Foreign Field Ramachandra Guha 2003 Indian English
17171 The Other Side Of Silence Urvashi Butalia 1998 Indian English
17171 Midnight's Furies Nisid Hajari 2015 Unknown English
17171 Partitions Amit Majmudar 2011 American English
17171 The Naked Island Russell Braddon 1951 Australian English
17171 The Year Of Living Dangerously Christopher Koch 1978 Australian English
17171 The Tragedy Of Liberation Frank Dikötter 2013 Chinese English
17171 The Cultural Revolution Frank Dikötter 2016 Chinese English
17171 Table For One Ko-eun Yun, Lizzie Buehler 2024 Unknown Korean
17171 State Of War Ninotchka Rosca 1988 Filipino English
17171 Horse Barbie Geena Rocero 2023 Unknown English
17171 Four Treasures Of The Sky Jenny Tinghui Zhang 2022 Unknown English
17171 The Penguin Book Of Japanese Short Stories Jay Rubin 2018 Japanese English
17171 Memories Of Philippine Kitchens Amy Besa, Romy Dorotan 2006 Philippine English
17171 Smaller And Smaller Circles FH Batacan 2002 Philippine English
17171 Blood Sisters Kim Yideum 2019 Korean Korean
17171 The Disaster Tourist Yun Ko-eun 2013 Korean Korean
17171 Last Boat Out Of Shanghai Zia, Helen 2019 Unknown English
17171 The Loneliest Americans Jay Caspian Kang 2021 American English
17171 Lon Po Po Ed Young 1989 American English
17171 Rickshaw Girl Mitali Perkins 2007 American English
17171 The Lion And The Lily Ira Mukhoty 2023 Unknown English
17171 Man Of My Time Dalia Sofer 2020 Unknown English
17171 Children Of The Jacaranda Tree Sahar Delijani 2013 Unknown English
17171 The Colonel Mahmoud Dowlatabadi 2009 Iranian Persian
17171 An Insular Possession Timothy Mo 1986 British English
17171 The Court Of The Lion Eleanor Cooney, Daniel Altieri 1988 Unknown English
17171 Dynasty Robert S. Elegant 1977 American English
17171 Manchu Robert S. Elegant 1980 American English
17171 Mandarin Robert S. Elegant 1983 American English
17171 Peking Anthony Grey 1988 British English
17171 Raj Gita Mehta 1989 Indian English
17171 The Orphan Sky Ella Leya 2015 Unknown English
17171 The Woman Who Thought She Was A Planet Vandana Singh 2009 Indian English
17171 Owner Of A Lonely Heart Beth Nguyen 2023 Unknown English
17171 Straw Dogs Of The Universe Ye Chun 2023 Unknown English
17171 Sparks Ian Johnson 2023 Unknown English
17171 The Best Possible Experience Nishanth Injam 2023 Unknown English
17171 Laut Bercerita Leila S. Chudori 2017 Indonesian Indonesian
17171 Chinese Shadows Simon Leys 1974 Belgian French
17171 On The Narrow Road Lesley Downer 2013 Unknown English
17171 Everything We Had: An Oral History Of The Vietnam War Al Santoli 1981 American English
17171 A True Novel Minae Mizumura 2002 Japanese Japanese
17171 The Master Puppeteer Katherine Paterson 1975 American English
17171 Homesick Jean Fritz 1982 American English