The rice mother

Author:  Rani Manicka.
Citation: Manicka, Rani. The rice mother, London : Hodder & Stoughton, 2011
Description:The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka, Sri Lankan-Malaysian novelist, won the South-East Asia and South Pacific Region 2003 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and has been translated into 22 languages. The story of 14 years old, Lakshmi leaves her Sri Lankan village for a life of luxury in Malaysia to get married a widower of 37, who lied to her and her family with the fact that he lives in poverty. she endures hardship and poverty, giving birth to six children. The story is narrated in turn by Lakshmi and various family members during a period of the Japanese occupation of Malaysia. The story is told through the shifting perspectives of different family members spanning 4 generations. 
More information: 
Goodreads
Amazon 
Publisher Weekly, June, 2003 
Library Journal, March,2003 
Awards: Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book in South East Asia and Pacific (2003), POPULAR-The Star Readers’ Choice Awards Nominee for Fiction (2011)
Formats: print book, ebook
Languages: English, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Macedonian, etc.

The garden of evening mists

Author: Tan Twan Eng

Citation: Twan Eng, Tan. The garden of evening mists: a novel, New York : Weinstein Books, 2012.

Description:: The garden of evening mists written by the Malaysian lawyer, Tan. The book has won many awards and been translated into many languages. The story begins in 1950s when the communist warfare was around the highlands of Malaya and flashback to the situation when the Japanese occupied Malaya. The author tells the story through the eyes of Yan Ling Teoh, the survivor of a Japanese POW camps while she was developing her relationship with Aritomo, the Japanese gardener. The complicated relationship, painful, hateful, and the mystery of how she escaped the camp with the beautiful scene of garden.

More information:

Goodreads reviews 

Library Journal, September, 2012 

Awards:

Man Booker Prize Nominee (2012), The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Nominee for Shortlist (2014), Man Asian Literary Prize (2012), Walter Scott Prize (2013), POPULAR-The Star Readers’ Choice Awards for Fiction (2013)

Formats: print book, ebook, large print, audiobooks

Languages: English, Thai, Chinese, Serbian, Spanish, Romanian, Italian, etc.

Buru Quartet series

Author:  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Volume No:

This earth of mankind

Child of all nations

House of glass

Footsteps

Description:

Well-known series which have been translated into many languages, written by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, one of 100 authors everyone should read who received many of international Awards. The story based on his life from the period of East Java during Dutch colonial rule to the Independence Day and civil war. The story of the native Javanese, Mink and his wife, Annelis, a mixed-blood daughter the Dutch-Javanese. An unpleasant story life of Annelis who was threatened as a mixed race by her family. Toe reveals of how the Dutch colonialism ruled the natives and the nationalism movements were grown up. This series are recommend reading for understanding the history of Indonesia from the colonial period, Japanese invasion, Nationalism movement, and the post war period after the independent day.

More information:

Goodreads 

Amazon 

Recommended reading by: Publisher weekly, Library journal, Kirkus Reviews

Formats: print book

Languages: English, Thai, Dutch, Indonesian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, etc.

Miss Burma

Author: Craig, Charmaine

Citation: Craig, Charmaine. Miss Burma, New York : Grove/Atlantic, Incorporated, 2017

Description:Charmaine Craig, a faculty member in the Department of Creative Writing at University of California tells a story of one family based on her mother’s life during the war in Burma. Miss Burma tells the story through the eyes of Benny and Khin, husband and wife, and their daughter Louisa from 1920s, British colonialism, Japanese invasion to the military rules in 1960s. The love story of the two different ethnic groups, their hardship, and separation between the World War II during the Japanese Occupation. The story of the ordinary people for their freedom after the war when the British authorities make a deal with the Burman nationalists, led by Aung San, and Benny was one of this group. When Aung San is assassinated, his successor ignores the pleas for self-government of the Karen people and other ethnic groups. The book tells the complex relationship of the lovers within in the internal war between ethnic groups and when their daughter become miss pageant under the military government.

More information:

Goodread reviews 

Library Journal, February, 2017 

Publisher Weekly, March, 2017 

Kirkus Reviews, May, 2017 

Formats: printbook

Languages: English

The bridge over the River Kwai

Author: Pierre Boulle

Citation: Boulle,Pierre. The bridge over the River Kwai, New York : Ballantine Books, 2007.

Description:Another POWs story sets in Thailand for the railway project under the Japanese occupation during the second world war. A very popular book which received many Awards and has been translated into many languages. Its movie won 7 Oscars in 1957. Pierre Boulle writes the story based on his experiences in POWs camp, giving the sense of what’s like to be in the war, the physical struggles, the emotional pain through the main characters, Colonial Nichholson, and his colleagues. The same writer of Planet of the Aples. Highly recommended reading and watching the movies.

More information:

The bridge on the River Kwai movie, 1957, IMdb

Goodreads 

Amazon 

Awards: Prix Sainte-Beuve (1952)

Formats: print book, audiobook, ebook, DVD video for movie

Languages: English, Chinese, French, Bengali, Italian, etc.

The railway man

 

Author: Eric, Lomax

Citation: Lomax, Eric. The railway man, London: Random House, 2009.

Description: Based on the author’s experience in a Japanese POW camp in Thailand between the Asia-Pacific war. A Scottish-British army officer(engineer) who sent out to work in Singapore and was captured when the fallen of Singapore to Japan. He was sent to build the railway project in Thailand together with other prisoners. The story of his contribution on the railway, friendship, the horror of torture, and the help from his wife, Patti. The author presented the post-traumatic stress he faced and the endeavor to forgive. This book has been translated into many languages and making a film in 2013 with Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman as the main casts.

More information:

Goodread  

Amazon  

IMDb

Awards:

The movie has 7 wins and 20 nominations

NCR Book Award (1996), J.R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography (1996)

Formats: print book, audiobook, eAudiobook, DVD video

Languages: English, French, Russian, Polish, Italian

The rape of Nanking : The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II

Author:  Iris Chang

Citation: Chang, Iris. The rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, New York  : BasicBooks, 1997.

Description:The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang, a Chinese- American journalist was first published on 1997. This book has been translated into many languages and become talk of the town as it was a shocked story which never be told before. The book won the New York Times Notable Books of the Year on 1998. In 2007, an American documentary film, Nanking, was released. The story was motivated in part by the author own grandparents' stories about their escape from the massacre. This book tells of the Japanese occupied the accident town of Nanking in December 1937 through three perspectives of the Japanese soldiers who witnessed and took part, the Chinese survivors, and about the European and American residents who stayed and created a "safety zone" within the city. This painful story has been criticized by many of political leaders, and historians as well as it influenced for many academic and political publications.

More information:
Description presentation

Amazon reviews 

Goodreads 

The author's website

Movie trailer

Bestseller list:

New York Times

San Francisco Chronicle

notachain.com

Northern California Independent Booksellers Association

Chicago Tribune

Awards: New York Times Notable Books of the Year ( WON AWARD in 1998 )

Formats: print book, ebooks, Audio book

Languages: English, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, French