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
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Days in the Caucasus
Banine
Paper Book
A coming of age story and a portrait of a vanished world. It shows what it means to leave the past behind, yet how it haunts us.

Azerbaijan | Azeri author

In the shadow of the banyan
Ratner, Vaddey.
Paper Book
An Indie Next Pick -- For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father, returning home at dawn with details of the revolution in the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. Soon the family is swept up in the chaos. For the next four years, as the...

Cambodia | Khmer-American author

First they killed my father : a daughter of Cambodia remembers
Ung, Loung.
Paper Book
From a childhood survivor of Cambodia's brutal Pol Pot regime comes a narrative of war crimes and desperate actions, the unnerving strength of a small girl and her family, and their triumph of spirit.

Cambodia | Khmer-American author

Beauty is a wound
Kurniawan, Eka
Paper Book
The epic novel Beauty Is a Wound combines history, satire, family tragedy, legend, humor, and romance in a sweeping polyphony. The beautiful Indo prostitute Dewi Ayu and her four daughters are beset by incest, murder, bestiality, rape, insanity, monstrosity, and the often vengeful undead. Kurniawan...

Indonesia | Indonesian author

Censoring an Iranian love story : a novel
Mandanipour, Shahriar.
Paper Book
From one of Iran’s most acclaimed and controversial contemporary writers, his first novel to appear in English—a dazzlingly inventive work of fiction that opens a revelatory window onto what it’s like to live, to love, and to be an artist in today’s Iran. The...

Iran | Iranian author

Persepolis
Satrapi, Marjane
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. "A wholly original achievement.... Satrapi evokes herself and her schoolmates coming of age in a...

Iran | Iranian author

The Baghdad clock
Ra?wi?, Shahd
Paper Book
  Shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2018 This number one best-selling title in Iraq, Dubai, and the UAE is a heart-rending tale of two girls growing up in war-torn Baghdad Baghdad, 1991. The Gulf War is raging. Two girls, hiding in an air raid...

Iraq | Iraqi author

Frankenstein in Baghdad : a novel
Sa?da?wi?, Ah?mad
Paper Book
*International Booker Prize finalist* "Brave and ingenious." --The New York Times "Gripping, darkly humorous . . . profound." --Phil Klay, bestselling author and National Book Award winner for Redeployment "Extraordinary . . . A...

Iraq | Iraqi author

Pizzeria Kamikaze
Keret, Etgar
Paper Book
Mordy's afterlife isn't shaping up to be much better than his former life, until the road trip that could change everything. "I think she cried at my funeral. It's not like I am conceited or anything, but I am pretty sure."   Mordy wanted to get away. Now in an...

Israel | Israeli author

Yalo
Khoury, Elias.
Paper Book
Yalo propels us into a skewed universe of brutal misunderstanding, of love and alienation, of self-discovery and luminous transcendence. At the center of the vortex stands Yalo, a young man drifting between worlds like a stray dog on the streets of Beirut during the Lebanese civil war. Living with...

Lebanon | Lebanese author

Celestial bodies
Alharthi, Jokha
Paper Book
This winner of the 2019 Man Booker International Prize and national bestseller is "an innovative reimagining of the family saga . . . Celestial Bodies is itself a treasure house: an intricately calibrated chaos of familial orbits and conjunctions, of the gravitational pull of...

Oman | Omani author

Funny boy : a novel
Selvadurai, Shyam
Paper Book
“A marvelous first novel, about growing up gay in Sri Lanka...from a brilliant new writer whose next book cannot arrive here quickly enough” (Kirkus Reviews).

Sri Lanka | Sri Lankan author


Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.