10 Asian authors you need

to know: the Man Asian

Literary Prize longlist
1. “Three Sisters,” by Bi Feiyu
Through the stories of
three sisters – daughters
of a lecherous
Communist Party
secretary – popular
Chinese novelist and
screenwriter Bi Feiyu
explores the difficult lives
of women in
Communist China in the
1970s and 80s.
2. “Way to Go” by Upamanyu Chatterjee
"Way to Go" is a darkly comic
novel by Indian
novelist Upamanyu
Chatterjee (author of "English,
August") and a sequel to "The
Last Burden," Chatterjee's
1994 novel. Both works
satirize contemporary Indian
life. At the center of both is a
dysfunctional family of two
brothers with a father who –
in "Way to Go" – mysteriously
disappears one morning.
3. “Dahanu Road,”
by Anosh Irani

In "Dahanu Road" Anosh Irani

– Indian by birth, but now a
longtime resident of Canada –
tells the story of three
generations of Persians who
have become landowners in
the country outside Bombay,
and how their lives are
upended by the mysterious
death of a tribal worker on
their estate.
4. "Serious Men,” by Manu Joseph

This debut novel is a powerful

exploration of questions of
class in India. "Serious Men"
tells the story of a Dalit
(untouchable) secretary who
works for a high-class
Brahmin at Bombay's Institute
of Theory and Research and
invents stories about his
disabled son in a desperate
effort to advance socially.
5. “The Thing About Thugs,” by Tabish Khair

Set in Victorian England,

this work by Indian poet-
novelist Tabish Khair tells
the story of an Indian
villager who travels
to London with an English
captain and fascinates him
with the story of his life as
a murderous thug.
6. “Tiger Hills,” by Sarita Mandanna
This debut novel by Indian
author Sarita Mandanna –
which is set on the coffee
plantations and in the small
villages of Coorg in
southern India and has been
described as India's "Gone
with the Wind" – tells the
story of a love triangle
involving two young people
and a renowned tiger hunter.
7. “The Changeling,” by Kenzaburo Oe

Japanese Nobel
laureate Kenzaburo Oe takes
the real-life suicide of film
director Juzo Itami (who was
also Oe's close friend and
brother-in-law) and spins
around it a roman à clef that
takes the main characters
back to their past and their
previous entanglement with a
right-wing paramilitary group.
8. “Hotel Iris,” by Yoko Ogawa
This darker novel by the
Japanese author of the
charming "The
Housekeeper and the
Professor" explores
questions of obsession
and insecurity in this story
of a teenage hotel worker
and a middle-aged
translator.
9. “Monkey-man,” by Usha K.R.
Indian novelist Usha K.R. uses
the real story of reports of a
strange "monkey-man"
supposedly spotted in various
locales across India in 2000 to
explore the challenges faced
by urban India at the dawn of
a new millenium. As a setting
Usha relies on her own
city, Bangalore, and highlights
its dizzying evolution into
high-tech center.
10. “Below the Crying
Mountain,” by Criselda Yabes

This novel by Filipina

journalist and five-time
author Criselda
Yabes deals with the Moro
rebellion in the
southern Philippines.