Fiction

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1
Pachinko
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee
Pachinko follows four generations of a Korean family whose lives are transformed by migration, discrimination, and the search for belonging. The story begins in early twentieth-century Korea, where young Sunja becomes pregnant by a wealthy man who refuses to marry her. She accepts an offer of marriage from a kind-hearted minister and moves with him to Japan, hoping to build a better future. However, the family encounters widespread prejudice against Koreans living in Japan, limiting their opportunities and shaping their identities. As the story moves across generations, each family member struggles to balance personal ambition with cultural heritage and social expectations. Lee explores sacrifice, resilience, family loyalty, and the consequences of historical injustice, portraying how individuals attempt to create meaningful lives in a society that refuses to fully accept them.
South Korea 2017
2
Exit West: A Novel
Exit West: A Novel
Mohsin Hamid
Exit West follows Nadia and Saeed, two young people who fall in love in an unnamed country descending into civil war. As violence spreads through their city, everyday life becomes increasingly dangerous, and the couple begins searching for a way to escape. They hear rumours of mysterious doors that can transport people to distant countries, offering a possible route to safety. After passing through one of these doors, Nadia and Saeed find themselves navigating the uncertainties of refugee life in unfamiliar places, including Greece, London, and California. Their relationship changes as they adapt to new communities and confront the emotional costs of displacement. Blending realism with speculative fiction, Hamid explores migration, borders, belonging, and the resilience required to build a future after leaving home. The novel also asks how movement across borders transforms individuals and societies.
Pakistan 2017
3
Green Island
Green Island
Shawna Yang Ryan
Green Island follows several generations of a Taiwanese family whose lives are transformed by political repression and the legacy of the February 28 Incident of 1947. The story begins when Dr. Tsai, a young physician, is arrested by Chinese Nationalist authorities after the uprising in Taiwan. His eventual return to his family does not restore their former life; instead, fear, suspicion, and silence become part of their everyday existence. Years later, his youngest daughter grows up carrying the emotional consequences of her father’s experiences and eventually confronts difficult choices of her own. Moving between Taiwan and the United States, the novel examines how political violence enters private life and shapes family relationships across generations. It explores survival, complicity, memory, and the moral compromises people make to protect those they love.
Taiwan 2017
4
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
Lisa See
Set in the mountains of Yunnan, China, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane follows Li-yan, a young woman from the Akha ethnic community whose life is shaped by centuries-old traditions surrounding tea cultivation, marriage, and family. When Li-yan gives birth to a daughter outside marriage, she makes the painful decision to leave her baby near an orphanage rather than follow a tradition that threatens the child’s life. The girl, Haley, is adopted by an American family and grows up far from her biological roots. As the years pass, both mother and daughter struggle with questions about their identities and origins. Connected by their shared heritage and the ancient tea trade, their stories explore motherhood, cultural change, adoption, and the enduring bonds between generations.
China 2017
5
This House of Clay and Water
This House of Clay and Water
Faiqa Mansab
This House of Clay and Water follows two women whose lives intersect in contemporary Lahore, where social expectations, religious traditions, and personal desires shape the choices available to them. Nida is the wife of a police officer, living a life of privilege that conceals profound loneliness and dissatisfaction. When she encounters Bhanggi, a transgender woman living on the margins of society, an unexpected friendship develops between them. Their connection challenges the boundaries imposed by class, gender, and respectability. Through their intertwined stories, Faiqa Mansab explores the search for belonging in a society where people who defy conventional expectations often face exclusion and violence. The novel also follows Sasha, a young man whose own emotional struggles become entangled with the women’s lives, adding further complexity to the story’s exploration of love and identity. Against the backdrop of Lahore’s vibrant yet deeply divided social landscape, the novel examines faith, desire, gender, and the human need for acceptance. It asks whether genuine connection can survive in a world determined to categorise people and dictate how they should live.
Pakistan 2017
6
Four Minutes
Four Minutes
Nataliya Deleva
Four Minutes explores the lives of people who exist on the margins of society in post-communist Bulgaria, focusing on loneliness, trauma, and the struggle to be seen and understood. At its centre is Leah, a woman who grew up in an orphanage marked by neglect and abuse. Now in her thirties, she continues to grapple with the wounds of her childhood while trying to build a meaningful life. When she volunteers at an orphanage, she forms a bond with Dara, a nine-year-old girl who has stopped speaking following her father’s murder. Leah hopes to adopt her, but prejudice and bureaucracy stand in her way. Interwoven with Leah’s story are nine shorter portraits of other marginalised people, including Roma women and children, refugees, and survivors of abuse. Each section is designed to be read in approximately four minutes, reflecting the idea that a brief moment of genuine attention can foster empathy. Through these interconnected stories, Nataliya Deleva examines abandonment, exclusion, and the human need for connection, asking what it takes to truly see another person.
Bulgaria 2017
7
A Girl Returned
A Girl Returned
Donatella Di Pietrantonio
A Girl Returned follows a thirteen-year-old girl who is suddenly sent back to the family she barely remembers after being raised by a couple she believed were her parents. Without explanation, she finds herself living with her biological family in a crowded apartment in a poor rural community in southern Italy. Surrounded by unfamiliar siblings and a mother who feels like a stranger, she struggles to understand why she was given away and why she has now been returned. As she adjusts to her new circumstances, the girl develops a complicated relationship with her younger sister, Adriana, whose boldness and resourcefulness offer both companionship and conflict. Through the protagonist’s perspective, Donatella Di Pietrantonio explores the emotional consequences of abandonment, the divisions between social classes, and the meaning of motherhood and belonging. Written in a restrained, powerful style, the novel captures the vulnerability of adolescence and the lasting impact of secrets within families. It asks whether family is defined by blood, love, or the people who choose to stay.
Italy 2017
8
We Were the Lucky Ones
We Were the Lucky Ones
Georgia Hunter
We Were the Lucky Ones is a historical novel inspired by the true story of the Kurc family, a Polish Jewish family separated by the Second World War. When Nazi Germany invades Poland, the family members are scattered across continents, each facing different dangers as they struggle to survive the Holocaust. From forced labor camps and occupied cities to resistance movements and refugee journeys, their experiences reveal the extraordinary lengths people will go to protect themselves and reunite with those they love. Despite persecution, loss, and uncertainty, the Kurcs maintain hope that they will one day find one another again. Drawing on her own family history, Georgia Hunter explores resilience, sacrifice, and the enduring bonds of family in the face of unimaginable adversity. The novel offers a moving portrait of survival and the determination to preserve love and humanity during one of history’s darkest periods.
Poland 2017
9
Ædnan: An Epic
Ædnan: An Epic
Linnea Axelsson
Spanning a century of Sámi history, Ædnan tells the story of two Indigenous families whose lives are transformed by colonialism, forced assimilation, and the struggle to preserve their cultural identity. In the early twentieth century, new national borders disrupt traditional reindeer-herding routes, tearing families away from the land and ways of life that have sustained them for generations. Decades later, their descendants confront the consequences of discrimination and cultural erasure, searching for ways to reclaim their language, heritage, and belonging. Written in haunting, lyrical verse, Axelsson’s epic weaves together intimate family memories and the broader history of a people whose existence has been threatened but never extinguished. The title, Ædnan, means land or earth in Northern Sámi, reflecting the profound connection between territory, ancestry, and identity. This is a powerful story of dispossession, resistance, and the enduring bond between a people and their homeland.
Sweden 2018
10
The Devils' Dance
The Devils' Dance
Hamid Ismailov
In 1937, during Stalin’s Great Terror, the celebrated Uzbek writer Abdulla Qodiriy is arrested by the Soviet secret police and imprisoned in Tashkent. Facing brutal interrogations and the constant threat of execution, he seeks refuge in his imagination, attempting to reconstruct the historical novel he was writing before his arrest. His unfinished work tells the story of Oyxon, a nineteenth-century enslaved girl who rises to prominence in the courts of Central Asian khans, only to become entangled in a dangerous world of political rivalries, forced marriages, and imperial intrigue. As Qodiriy develops Oyxon’s story in his mind, the boundaries between his fictional world and his own terrifying circumstances begin to dissolve. Their experiences mirror one another, connecting the struggles of a woman fighting for agency in a patriarchal society with those of a writer facing persecution under a repressive regime. Rich in Uzbek poetry, folklore, and historical detail, Hamid Ismailov’s novel is both a tribute to Central Asian literary traditions and a powerful meditation on artistic freedom, cultural identity, and the devastating consequences of political oppression.
Uzbekistan 2018
11
Death of the Snake Catcher
Death of the Snake Catcher
Ak Welsapar
Set against the stark beauty of Central Asia, Death of the Snake Catcher is a collection of short stories by Turkmen writer Ak Welsapar, blending magical realism, folklore, political commentary, and intimate portraits of human life. The title story follows an elderly snake catcher who confronts a giant cobra in the heart of the desert. Their encounter becomes a symbolic dialogue about humanity’s relationship with the natural world, exploring the uneasy balance between fear, power, vulnerability, and survival. Elsewhere in the collection, Welsapar depicts lovers separated by political divisions, young people confronting injustice, and ordinary individuals navigating a world shaped by repression and uncertainty. His stories move between the mythical and the everyday, revealing the emotional richness of Turkmen culture while exposing the pressures faced by people living under authoritarian rule. Drawing on vivid landscapes and expressive storytelling, Welsapar portrays characters who endure hardship with remarkable resilience and optimism. The collection offers an unusual literary window into a country whose culture and experiences remain relatively unfamiliar to many international readers.
Turkmenistan 2018
12
The Incendiaries
The Incendiaries
R. O. Kwon
The Incendiaries follows three young people whose lives become entangled through grief, faith, love, and radical belief at an elite American university. Phoebe Lin, a Korean American student struggling with guilt over her mother’s death, meets Will Kendall, a former evangelical who has lost his religious faith but falls deeply in love with her. Their fragile relationship is disrupted when Phoebe becomes involved with John Leal, a charismatic former student who leads a secretive religious group with increasingly extreme convictions. As the group’s ideology turns toward violence, Will struggles to understand Phoebe’s choices and uncover the truth behind Leal’s mysterious past. Told through shifting perspectives and an unconventional narrative, the novel explores how grief and the desire for purpose can make people vulnerable to manipulation and extremism. Blending psychological suspense with literary fiction, R. O. Kwon examines the boundaries between faith and fanaticism, love and obsession, and personal conviction and destructive devotion. Set against the atmosphere of an American university campus, the novel asks what happens when the need to believe becomes all-consuming.
United States 2018