Books From Around the World (YA): Asia

It’s often interesting to get a different perspective on the world. Here are some books set in some far-flung places – and some places close to home – grouped by continent/large body of water with islands in it. The books on this list are (mostly) written by authors from the countries they are about, and in many cases have been translated into English from their mother tongues (the book we’ve chosen for Madagascar, Return to the enchanted island by Johary Ravaloson, is only the second book to have ever been translated from Malagasy into English!).

Not all of the books are in the Young Adult collection, but we’ve tried to make sure that they all at least feature kids or teens in prominent places in the story. Our eventual goal is to have at least one book for every country in the world! Help us out by sending in recommendations if you’ve found one we’ve missed!

This list contains books written by authors from Asia. Check out our lists for authors from Africa, Europe, North and Central America, Oceania, and South America for even more recommendations!

Updated June 19, 2024
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All my rage
Tahir, Sabaa
Paper Book
National Book Award WINNER Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature WINNER An INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! An INSTANT INDIE BESTSELLER! "All My Rage is a love story, a tragedy and an infectious teenage fever dream about what home...

Pakistan | Pakistani-American author

Patron saints of nothing
Ribay, Randy
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CILIP CARNEGIE MEDAL 2020 "A heartbreaking and original novel." - Guardian A powerful coming-of-age story about grief, guilt and the risks a Filipino-American teenager takes to uncover the truth about his cousin's murder. ...

Philippines | Filipino author

The henna wars
Jaigirdar, Adiba
Paper Book
"Impossible to put down." - Kirkus, starred review Nishat doesn't want to lose her family, but she also doesn't want to hide who she is, and it only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life. Flávia is beautiful and charismatic, and Nishat falls for...

Bangladesh | Bangladeshi-Irish author

The love & lies of Rukhsana Ali
Khan, Sabina
Paper Book
With a welcome mix of humor, heart, and high-stakes drama, Sabina Khan provides a timely and honest portrait of what it's like to grow up feeling unwelcome in your own culture. Fight for love. Fight for family. Fight for yourself. Seventeen-year-old Rukhsana Ali...

Bangladesh | Bangladeshi-Canadian author

First they killed my father : a daughter of Cambodia remembers
Ung, Loung.
Paper Book
"A riveting memoir. . . an important, moving work that those who have suffered cannot afford to forget and those who have been spared cannot afford to ignore." -- San Francisco Chronicle From a childhood survivor of the Cambodian genocide under the regime of Pol Pot, this is a...

Cambodia | Khmer-American author

Bad kids
Chen, Zijin
Paper Book
A dark Chinese suspense thriller about teenage accountability, where no one is innocent, for fans of Keigo Higashino.

China | Chinese author

The three-body problem
Liu, Cixin
Paper Book
The inspiration for the Netflix series 3 Body Problem! WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL Over 1 million copies sold in North America "A mind-bending epic."--The New York Times * "War of the Worlds for...

China | Chinese author

Chinese Cinderella : the true story of an unwanted daughter
Mah, Adeline Yen
Paper Book
More than 800,000 copies in print!   From the author of critically acclaimed and bestselling memoir Falling Leaves, this is a poignant and moving true account of her childhood, growing up as an unloved daughter in 1940s China. A Chinese...

China | Chinese-American author

A hero born
Jin, Yong
Paper Book
"China. The year is 1200. The Song Empire has been defeated in the north by invading Jurchen forces. Pushed further south, the empire is in danger of collapse and the Chinese population is furious. Now it falls to lone patriots trained in the martial arts to save China. Guo Jing's father was one...

China | Chinese author

Hard by a Great Forest
Vardiashvili, Leo.
Paper Book
* AN OBSERVER BEST NEW NOVELIST FOR 2024 * * SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE 2024 * 'A spellbinding achievement' FINANCIAL TIMES'Poignant and often painfully comic' OBSERVER 'I gasped,...

Georgia | Georgian author

Darius the Great is not okay
Khorram, Adib
Paper Book
Darius doesn't think he'll ever be enough, in America or in Iran. Hilarious and heartbreaking, this unforgettable debut introduces a brilliant new voice in contemporary YA. Winner of the William C. Morris Debut Award "Heartfelt, tender, and so utterly real. I'd live...

Iran | Iranian-American author

Persepolis
Satrapi, Marjane
Paper Book
A New York Times Notable Book A Time Magazine “Best Comix of the Year” A San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times Best-seller Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in...

Iran | Iranian author

The cat who saved books
Natsukawa, Sōsuke
Paper Book
Grandpa used to say it all the time: books have tremendous power. But what is that power really?Natsuki Books was a tiny second-hand bookshop on the edge of town. Inside, towering shelves reached the ceiling, every one crammed full of wonderful books. Rintaro Natsuki loved this space that his...

Japan | Japanese author

Wandering son. Volume one
Shimura, Takako
Paper Book
The fifth grade: the threshold to puberty and the beginning of the end of childhood innocence. Shuichi Nitori and his new friend Yoshino Takatsuki have happy homes, loving families and are well-liked by their classmates. But they share a secret that further complicates a time of life that is awkward...

Japan | Japanese author

The pact we made
AlAmmar, Layla
Paper Book
Featured on BBC Radio 4's Open Book * Featured on BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking * An ELLE Magazine cultural pick * Reviewed in the Observer 'Beautifully written' Joanna Cannon 'Fascinating ... full of personality' Guardian 'Brilliant ... What a...

Kuwait | Kuwaiti author

The cult of romance
Ayoub, Sarah
Paper Book
When your bestie is marrying a guy she barely knows, can you save her from the cult before it's too late? Natalie is living proof that love is a scam. She's traumatised by her parents' failed marriage and overwhelmed by her grandmother's expectations of good Lebanese...

Lebanon | Lebanese-Australian author

We, the survivors
Aw, Tash
Paper Book
A murderer's confession - devastating, unblinking, poignant, unforgettable - which reveals a story of class, education and the inescapable workings of destiny. Ah Hock is an ordinary, uneducated man born in a Malaysian fishing village and now trying to make his way in a country that...

Malaysia | Malaysian author

Black water sister
Cho, Zen
Paper Book
'A sharp and bittersweet story of past and future, ghosts and gods and family, that kept me turning pages into the dark hours of the night' - Naomi Novik, author of UprootedThis mischievous Malaysian-set novel is an adventure featuring family, ghosts and local gods - from Hugo Award winning novelist...

Malaysia | Malaysian author

The night tiger
Choo, Yangsze
Paper Book
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | REESE BOOK CLUB PICK | BBC BIG JUBILEE BETWEEN THE COVERS READ 'It reminds me of Where the Crawdads Sing . . . it's an amazing book' Rhys Stephenson on BBC's Between the Covers 'You won't be...

Malaysia | Malaysian author

The weight of our sky
Hanna Alkaf
Paper Book
A music loving teen with OCD does everything she can to find her way back to her mother during the historic race riots in 1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in this heart-pounding literary debut. Melati Ahmad looks like your typical movie-going, Beatles-obsessed sixteen-year-old....

Malaysia | Malaysian author

I am thunder
Khan, Muhammad (Teen fiction writer)
Paper Book
I Am Thunder is the Branford Boase Award-winning debut YA novel which questions how far you'll go to stand up for what you believe. Fifteen-year-old Muzna Saleem is used to being invisible. So no one is more surprised than her when Arif Malik, the hottest boy in...

Pakistan | British-Pakistani author

Other names for love
Soomro, Taymour
Paper Book
Discover this hypnotic novel about a boy's life-changing summer: an unmissable read for fans of Damon Galgut, Brandon Taylor and Hisham Matar. On the train from Karachi, as dusk begins to fall, Fahad's dreams of his summer in London are fading. He is headed to Abad, the family...

Pakistan | Pakistani author

Lizard's tale
Chan, Weng Wai
Paper Book
It's Singapore in 1940, war is just around the corner - but twelve-year-old Lizard doesn't know that. He lives in Chinatown above a tailor's shop, surviving on his wits and hustling for odd jobs. When he steals a small teak box containing a Japanese code book from a Raffles Hotel suite, he finds...

Singapore | Singaporean-New Zealand author

Cursed bunny
Chung, Bora
Paper Book

South Korea | South Korean author

The Noh family
Shim, Grace
Paper Book
This sparkling K-drama inspired debut novel introduces irrepressibly charming teen Chloe Chang, who is reunited with her deceased father's estranged family via a DNA test, and is soon whisked off to Seoul to join them... When her friends gift her a 23-and-Me test as a gag, high...

South Korea | South Korean-American author

Untethered
Inoon, Ayesha
Paper Book
HIGHLY COMMENDED - The ACT Book of the Year 2024 HIGHLY COMMENDED - ACT Literary Awards 2024, Fiction. Winner of the 2022 ASA/HQ Fiction Prize. A finely observed debut novel of a young Muslim woman's experience of immigration to Australia from Sri Lankan-Australian writer Ayesha...

Sri Lanka | Sri Lankan-Australian author

The astonishing color of after
Pan, Emily X. R
Paper Book
A Time Magazine 100 Best YA Books of All Time Selection A stunning, heartbreaking debut novel about grief, love, and family, perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson and Celeste Ng. Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When...

Taiwan | Taiwanese-American author

Loveboat, Taipei
Wen, Abigail Hing
Paper Book
Now a major movie, Love in Taipei, on Paramount+   "Exciting and authentic." Sabaa Tahir, New York Times bestselling author of An Ember in the Ashes "Surprising, original and intelligent. An intense rush of rebellion and romance."...

Taiwan | Chinese-American author

Bangkok wakes to rain
Sudbanthad, Pitchaya
Paper Book
"Recreates the experience of living in Thailand's aqueous climate so viscerally that you can feel the water rising around your ankles." --Ron Charles, Washington Post "Important, ambitious, and accomplished." --Mohsin Hamid, New York Times bestselling author of Exit...

Thailand | Thai author

10 minutes 38 seconds in this strange world
Shafak, Elif
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019 'Expect vibrant, vivid and eye-opening descriptions of Middle Eastern life propelled by a tender storyline, all in Shafak's haunting, beautiful and considered prose' Vanity Fair 'Incredibly sensuous and...

Turkey | Turkish author


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