Best of
Asian-Literature

2001

Sandalwood Death


Mo Yan - 2001
    Against a broad historical canvas, the novel centers on the interplay between its female protagonist, Sun Meiniang, and the three paternal figures in her life. One of these men is her biological father, Sun Bing, an opera virtuoso and a leader of the Boxer Rebellion. As the bitter events surrounding the revolt unfold, we watch Sun Bing march toward his cruel fate, the gruesome “sandalwood punishment,” whose purpose, as in crucifixions, is to keep the condemned individual alive in mind-numbing pain as long as possible.Filled with the sensual imagery and lacerating expressions for which Mo Yan is so celebrated, Sandalwood Death brilliantly exhibits a range of artistic styles, from stylized arias and poetry to the antiquated idiom of late Imperial China to contemporary prose. Its starkly beautiful language is here masterfully rendered into English by renowned translator Howard Goldblatt.

Calling You


Otsuichi - 2001
    Tokyopop Fiction presents Calling You--a unique, beautifully written, and truly unpredictable collection of stories.A girl creates a cell phone in her imagination, which she uses to communicate with others...A young boy discovers his new friend has the power to heal others--and together they learn about true friendship and sacrifice...A miraculous flower proves the eternal power of love can combat the tragedy and horror of a deadly train accident...Connected with Otsu-ichi's hit manga, Calling You, this collection is certain to delight readers who enjoy heartfelt, supernatural mysteries.

Ben Singkol


F. Sionil José - 2001
    He ran away again from his foxhole in Bataan when the Japanese were closing in. and through much of his life, even when he had become comfortable, he still ran away, haunted by the poverty of his boyhood, of the treachery that he may have committed. This is Benjamin Singkol—perhaps the most interesting character ever created by F. Sionil José. After World War II, Sionil Jose enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas and came under the wing of Paz Latorena, one of the country’s foremost writers and literature teachers and the Dominican writer, Juan Labrador. He worked in journalism and developed his distinctively direct narrative style.Sionil José is best known for his epic work, the Rosales saga—five novels which encompass a hundred years of Philippine history, from 1872 when the three Filipino priests—Gomez, Burgos and Zamora—were martyred, to 1972 when Marcos declared Martial Law.

Belly of the Beast: POW's Inspiring True Story Faith Courage Survival Aboard Infamous WWII Japanese


Judith L. Pearson - 2001
    More than 1,100 of them would be dead by journey’s end... The son of a Kentucky sharecropper and an enlistee in the Navy’s medical corps, Myers arrived in Manilla shortly before the bombings of Pearl Harbor and the other six targets of the Imperial Japanese military. While he and his fellow corpsmen tended to the bloody tide of soldiers pouring into their once peaceful Naval hospital, the Japanese overwhelmed the Pacific islands, capturing 78,000 POWs by April 1942. Myers was one of the first captured.After a brutal three-year encampment, Myers and his fellow POWs were forced onto an enemy hell ship bound for Japan. Suffocation, malnutrition, disease, dehydration, infestation, madness, and simple despair claimed the lives of nearly three quarters of those who boarded "the beast".Myers survived.A compelling account of a rarely recorded event in military history, this is more than Estel Myers’ true story—this is an homage to the unfailing courage of men at war, an inspiring chronicle of self-sacrifice and endurance, and a tribute to the power of faith, the strength of the soul, and the triumph of the human spirit. "An inspiring look at one of World War II's darkest hours." —James Bradley, Author of Flags of our Fathers and Flyboys "A searing chronicle." —Kirkus Reviews"The Belly of the Beast (is)...a searing tribute...(to) America in its bleakest hour." —Senator John McCain, author New York Times bestseller Faith of My Fathers

When Darkness Falls and Other Stories


Ruskin Bond - 2001
    We meet the war veteran Markham whose deformation ends in tragedy; Susanna, the merry widow who loved each of her seven husbands to death and Kundan Singh, the reckless rake whom women find irresistible. There are also fascinating stories from the author’s childhood, about the eccentric characters and memorable animals of old Dehradun. CONTENTSWhen Darkness FallsThe Garden of MemoriesThe Ghost of GardenReturn of the White PigeonYoung Man in a TongaThe Writer's BarTopazSusanna's Seven HusbandsThe Amorous ServantMonkey TroubleColonel Wilkie's Good HuntingThe Family GhostLiving Without Money

Black Fairy Tale


Otsuichi - 2001
    Dark fantasy at its Japanese best. With bonus material including author's afterword.A raven who has learned to speak from watching movies befriends a young girl whose eyes were ruined in a freak accident. He brings her eyeballs he steals from other people, and when she puts them in her eye sockets, she sees memories from their original owners. Desperate to make the girl happy, the raven brings her more and more eyeballs. This is also the story of a young girl, Nami, who has lost her memories and cannot seem to live up to the expectations of those around her. The stories intertwine in a haunting, dreamy, horrific narrative evoking the raw and universal need for love.

The Mountain Poems of Hsieh Ling-Yün


Lingyun Xie - 2001
    These poems were hugely popular in Hsieh's own time and established him as one of the most innovative and influential poets in the history of Chinese poetry as well as a founder of Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism. Once again David Hinton, a recipient of fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts and The National Endowment for the Humanities and the winner of a Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from The Academy of American Poets, has produced a fluid and supple translation that does full justice to the rivers-and-mountains of Hsieh Ling-yün's inspiration.