My Asian Era
A curated journey through Asian literature
Thoughtful Reviews. Quiet Stories. Literary Depth.
For the past two years, I’ve been reading, reviewing, and quietly building a curated archive of books by Asian authors, mostly translated fiction, contemporary literature, and underrepresented voices that often get missed by mainstream reading lists.
What started as a personal reading habit has evolved into a full platform: a growing collection of spoiler-free reviews, thematic roundups, and quiet reflections meant to help more readers discover the emotional and cultural depth of Asian literature.
This isn’t a listicle site.
It’s not trend-based.
It’s intentional, built slowly, post by post, with care.
You’ll find:
Honest reviews from across Asia: Korean, Japanese, Southeast Asian, South Asian, Chinese, and Asian authors writing from around the world
Mini features for short books and chapbooks
Book club picks with community conversation prompts
Emotional clarity over academic critique
A calm space to discover books that linger
This is a living archive, part ongoing project, part reflective journal.
I’m in the process of centralizing older reviews and continuing to explore both contemporary releases and classic titles from across the region.
If you're tired of the same dozen titles getting recycled across book feeds — you're in the right place.
Welcome.
P.S. If you're looking to read along, I host a quiet book club through Fable. It's casual, thoughtful, and open to anyone curious about Asian literature.
Search Titles, Authors, Keywords, Themes
Premonition
At first, it feels like a story about a girl with premonitions. But what unfolds is quieter and deeper not about seeing the future, but remembering what you weren’t allowed to know. Premonition is soft, steady, and more emotional than it seems at first glance.
Blowfish
A quiet and deliberate novel that explores grief, suicide, and creative purpose through two intersecting lives, a sculptor and an architect, each reckoning with personal loss and the slow gravity of memory. This is a book that doesn’t offer resolution, but instead asks you to sit in the discomfort. I found it powerful, even when the tone stayed distant.
Soyangri Book Kitchen
A bestselling Korean novel about a small village bookstore where strangers come to rest and reset. Told in quiet, comforting chapters, Soyangri Book Kitchen explores burnout, grief, and second chances with warmth, food, books, and peace.
We Do Not Part
A quiet, haunting novel that unfolds in layers — snow, silence, and a history that still trembles underfoot.
Dark Chapter
This book isn’t about the rape. It’s about everything around it and the silence, the denial, the survival, and the systems that so often fail to hold the right people accountable.
Daydreamers
There were places where I got lost. But that disorientation felt intentional. This isn’t a clean manuscript. It’s a son trying to make sense of the pieces left behind.
The Sound of Waves
He felt himself floating far out at sea, deep down in the silence, alone. He was conscious only of the sea, and of himself in the sea.
At the End of the Matinee
A quiet, emotionally layered novel about love, missed connection, and the slow ache of wrong timing. Graceful and unresolved in all the right ways.
Marigold Mind Laundry
A soft, surreal novella about memory, care, and emotional quiet. Marigold Mind Laundry doesn’t ask you to understand — just to sit with it.
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea
Beautifully written and deeply disturbing, Mishima’s novel is a haunting dive into the fragility of human ideals, the cruelty of innocence, and the darkness that lies beneath admiration.
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
A lyrical coming-of-age story set during China’s Cultural Revolution, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress captures the quiet power of literature to spark transformation even in the most isolated corners of the world.
