If you like "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami...

If you like "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" then you may like these selections:

Bharati Mukherjee's entire collection:

Wife, Desirable Daughters, Leave It to Me, and The Holder of the World.
All are excellent reads, dealing with Indian immigrants to the US, what
they must go through to assimilate, or not, as the case may be, cultural
differences and mysteries. Desirable Daughters is her best as far as
place, character development and narrative.

Lian Hern has written a wonderful trilogy called The Tales of the Otori.
The first is Across the Nightingale Floor, then Grass for His Pillow and
the final is Brilliance of the Moon. They are set in feudal Japan (or
possibly a similar, fictitious country) during the time of the Samurai,
when warlords ruled the countryside and battles for territory and women
raged. The library owns the first two on audio as well as in print and
they were fascinating to listen to, partly because the right reader was
chosen.

Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha is another title you may enjoy. He
has done such a fabulous job that the story unfolds as if you are inside
the personal diary of a famous and beautiful geisha from Japan, just
before modernization. However, it is fiction, based on his interviews
with a real (retired) geisha.

Sujata Massey has written an award-winning mystery series with the
following titles:

The Bride's Kimono

The Floating Girl

The Flower Master

Zen Attitude

The Salaryman's Wife

The Samurai's Daughter

I have not read this series, but I want to! The reviews are very good,
describing the titles as romantic suspense, full of multicultural
details and attitudes of East versus West, sly, sexy, and sophisticated.

Kazuo Ishiguro's books, The Remains of the Day and When we Were Orphans
are both evocative of multicultural attitudes, places and events. Both
are really good books, clearly written and full of rich detail.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry is a bit of a tome, but I thoroughly
enjoyed. Set in India in the latter part of the 20th century it portrays
the constant struggle for survival in contemporary India. Full of
fascinating characters and events.

The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy is similar to the above, but
not as long or involved. Fewer characters, but still fascinating a story
of life in India.

The Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri is the best collection of
short stories I have read in a long time. Also, her more recent novel,
The Namesake received well-deserved, excellent reviews. It deals with
cross-cultural differences between Indian and American families.

I hope these titles will keep you in good reading for some time! If you
need any further assistance please contact any of us at the CRRL.

Martha Hutzel
Branch Manager
C. Melvin Snow Memorial Library