In celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month, this May’s audio book selections feature works by authors with roots from countries all over Asia.
Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch by Dai Sijie (CD Fic Dai)
Dai Sijie, a Chinese-French author, tells the tale of inept psychology scholar Mr. Muo who returns to China after studying in France for 11 years to search for his lost sweetheart. Originally titled Le Complexe de Di, a play on the "le complexe d'Oedipe" or the complex of Oedipus, this novel was translated from French and is the second novel written by Sijie after Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his years of pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami (CD Fic Murakami)
Bestselling Japanese author Haruki Murakami’s 13th book follows Tsukuru Tazaki as he searches for his best friends from high school and the answer to why they suddenly cut ties with him 16 years ago.
Sea of poppies by Amitav Ghosh (CD Fic Ghosh)
Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh takes us aboard the ship Ibis which transports a penniless Raja, a widowed tribeswoman, a mulatto American man and a French orphan from the Ganges to Canton in this nineteenth century saga set during the time of the Opium Wars.
Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie (CD Fic Rushdie)
British Indian Salman Rushdie sets his novel against the backdrop of the political unrest of the beautiful Kashmir region, bordering Pakistan and India, and the people whose lives are affected by the unrest. The story of Shalimar, once known as Shalimar the clown, and simple Kashmiri villager turned assassin, Maximillian, American ambassador to India and lover of Shalimar’s fiancé, Boonyi, and his illegitimate daughter, India, spans decades and continents.
The kite runner by Khaled Hosseini (CD Fic Hosseini)
The Kite Runner, Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini’s first novel, spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list and follows Amir and Hassan from their childhood as friends in Kabul, Afghanistan to twenty six years later. Though they eventually go separate ways, their lives remain entangled and meet again in this tale of redemption and the relationship between fathers and sons.
Never let me go: a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro (CD Fic Ishiguro)
In Never Let Me Go, Japanese British author Kazuo Ishiguro writes of a school in England named Hailsham with special students. This dystopian science fiction novel is a parable of morality and man’s greed for immortality.
