May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada and Asian American and Pacific Islander Month in the U.S. In celebration, here are five books by Asian-Canadian and Asian American authors to read in a variety of different genres.
1. Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
Do Not Say We Have Nothing was one of my favourite books last year and it well deserves all the praise it has gotten, including winning the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General Award, and being long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.
This is a beautiful, epic family saga that chronicles love and loss. The book follows a young woman named Marie trying to piece together her family’s past during the Chinese cultural revolution. Thien does an amazing job at balancing the characters’ stories and her prose as she follows the entwined lives of two generations of two different families.
2. Even This Page Is White by Vivek Shraya
Vivek Shraya is one of the current and upcoming Canadian writers to pay attention to. Even This Page Is White is her first poetry collection, and forms a beautiful and brutal look at racism through an examination of the body and skin. This is poetry at its finest in my opinion: powerful, personal and evocative. Even This Page Is White is poetry as activism, a conversation about the complexities and experiences of race and racism that everybody needs to have. This is a collection to read over and over, and an author to watch for.
3. SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki
This piece first made its appearance as an online web comic, and Jillian Tamaki has since compiled it all into a collected volume with an additional story at the end. Chronicling the daily lives of classmates at an academy for mutants, SuperMutant Magic Academy is a wonderfully funny, humorously dry, slice-of-life comic. Think less X-Men and more teenage existentialism, unrequited love, and worrying about finding a date for prom. Tamaki’s organic, sketchy art style brings the characters to life, almost making the book seem like a sketchbook diary.
4. The Devourers by Indra Das
Inda Das appeared on the fantasy scene last year with The Devourers, and I’m already ready for more. Set in Kolkata, India, college professor Alok meets a man one night who claims to be part werewolf. The Devourers blends horror and fantasy as it shifts between present and past, chronicling the lives of supernatural shape-changers. This book has some of the most beautiful, yet brutal and gruesome prose I’ve read in a long time, and Das’ writing just sucks you right in. This is a hard book to put down and one to feel sorry that it’s over once you’ve finished reading it.
5. Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
Ninefox Gambit is a military space opera set in a pan-Asian galactic empire. Captain Kel Cheris is disgraced and has one chance to redeem herself by retaking a heretic fortress. The only catch is she has to do so while being a host to the ghost of a long dead general who’s a brilliant tactician and a mass-murderer. This is a book that requires the reader to take a leap of faith as it unceremoniously dumps you into the middle of the story. However, Lee does an amazing job crafting and piecing the world and technology together, as well as writing compelling characters that keep you turning the pages.
