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““Reminiscent of Somerset Maugham at his storytelling best… Suzie Wong is enchanting.””.

—New York Herald Tribune

“Refreshingly different… excitingly real and vivid.”

—Boston Globe

“A thrilling, imaginative experience.”

—Washington Post & Times Herald

Author:  Richard Mason

Year: 1957

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Summary:

Robert is the only resident of the Nam Kok hotel not renting his room by the hour when he meets Suzie at the bar. She becomes his muse and they fall in love. But even in Hong Kong, where many white expatriates have Chinese mistresses, their romance could jeopardize the things they each hold dear. Set in the mid-1950s, The World of Suzie Wong is a beautifully written time capsule of a novel. First published more than fifty years ago, it resonated with readers worldwide, inspiring a film starring William Holden, a ballet, and even a reggae song. Now readers can experience the romance of this groundbreaking story anew.

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"Laced with intrigue."

—Elle

"Evocative, poignant, and skillfully crafted, The Piano Teacher is more than an epic tale of war and a tangled, tortured love story. It is the kind of novel one consumes in great, greedy gulps, pausing (grudgingly) only when absolutely necessary. . . . If we measure the skill of a fiction writer by her ability to create characters and atmosphere so effortlessly real, so alive on the page, that the reader feels a sense of participatory anxiety--as if the act of reading gives one the power to somehow influence the outcome of purely imaginary events--then Lee should be counted among the very best in recent memory."

—The New York Times Book Review, "Editor's Choice"

"A shattering, immensely satisfying debut."

—Chicago Tribune

"War, love, betrayal--an exquisite fugue of a first novel . . . intensely readable."

—People (4 stars)

"Lee unfolds the story with the brisk grace and discretion of the society she describes."

—O, The Oprah Magazine

"Sensual and gripping."

—The New Yorker

"The novel is sustained by elegant prose and a terrific sense of place. As Graham Greene evoked Vietnam in The Quiet American, Lee, born and raised in Hong Kong long after the war, captures the city as it was during World War II, its glittering veneer barely masking the panic and corruption beneath."

—The Boston Globe

Author:  Janice Y. K. Lee

Year: 2009

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Summary:

In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese as World War II overwhelms their part of the world. Will is sent to an internment camp, where he and other foreigners struggle daily for survival. Meanwhile, Trudy remains outside, forced to form dangerous alliances with the Japanese—in particular, the malevolent head of the gendarmerie, whose desperate attempts to locate a priceless collection of Chinese art lead to a chain of terrible betrayals.

Ten years later, Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong and is hired by the wealthy Chen family as their daughter’s piano teacher. A provincial English newlywed, Claire is seduced by the heady social life of the expatriate community. At one of its elegant cocktail parties, she meets Will, to whom she is instantly attracted—but as their affair intensifies, Claire discovers that Will’s enigmatic persona hides a devastating past. As she begins to understand the true nature of the world she has entered, and long-buried secrets start to emerge, Claire learns that sometimes the price of survival is love.

Book description credit: Amazon

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''Grand entertainment…packed with action…gaudy and flamboyant with blood and sin, treachery and conspiracy, sex and murder…fresh and vigorous.”

—New York Times

''A fabulous epic of the Far East that will disturb and excite you…a thrilling and enticing tale of adventure and human relationships…dramatic episodes, exotic vignettes, and heady descriptive passages.”

—Baltimore Sun

Author:  James Clavell

Year: 1966

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Summary:

Dirk Struan rose from humble beginnings to build Struan & Company, also known as the Noble House, into the world's largest Far East trading company. He is now the Tai-Pan--Supreme Leader--of all Tai-Pans in China. Along the way, however, he made a powerful enemy. Tyler Brock, Struan's rival from their early opium-smuggling days, also heads a large trading fleet, second in size only to Struan's. But it is not only silks and spices that drive their mutual companies' wealth--the opium trade is still booming. War between England and China might be over, but the hostilities remain. Struan and Brock come to control much of England's trade with China yet neither can control their desires or their hatred of each other. Over the years, their two families will cross paths, threatening to rip both apart, with reverberations that will echo across the generations.

Struan must fight to save his company and his family, or risk seeing everything he has created destroyed at the hands of his sworn enemy. Ambition, political intrigue, and love and lust weave their way throughout the novel the New York Times called, "grand entertainment...packed with action...with blood and sin, treachery and conspiracy, sex and murder." East and West come together in an opulent and intricately plotted narrative. A tour-de-force of historical fiction, rich in detail yet eminently readable, Tai-Pan will stay with you long after the final page.

Book description credit: Book Depository

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“Clavell’s biggest triumph yet . . . storytelling done with dash and panache . . . a rousing read.”

—Washington Post

“Fiction for addicts . . . extravagantly romantic . . . a book that you can get lost in for weeks . . . staggering complexity . . . not only is it as long as life, it’s also as rich with possibilities.”

—New York Times

“Tremendous entertainment . . . a seamless marvel of pure storytelling.”

—Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A mesmerizer . . . spellbinding.”

—Los Angeles Times

“Breathtaking . . . only terms like colossal, gigantic, titanic, incredible, unbelievable, gargantuan, are properly descriptive . . . . Clavell has made himself the king of super-adventure thrillers.”

—Chicago Tribune Book World

Author:  James Clavell

Year: 1981

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Summary:

The setting is Hong Kong, 1963. The action spans scarcely more than a week, but these are days of high adventure: from kidnapping and murder to financial double-dealing and natural catastrophes—fire, flood, landslide. Yet they are days filled as well with all the mystery and romance of Hong Kong—the heart of Asia— rich in every trade. . . money, flesh, opium, power.

Book description credit: Amazon

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Author:  Kevin Kwan

Year: 2013

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Summary:

When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she hopes to marry. But Nick has failed to give his girlfriend a few key details, that his family is extremely wealthyy and he is country's most eligible bachelor.

On Nick's arm, Rachel may as well have a target on her back the second she steps off the plane, and soon, her relaxed vacation turns into an obstacle course of old money, new money, nosy relatives, and scheming social climbers.

Book description credit: Amazon

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Author: Kevin Kwan

Year: 2016

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Summary:

On the eve of her wedding to Nicholas Young, heir to one of the greatest fortunes in Asia, Rachel should be over the moon. She has a flawless Asscher-cut diamond from JAR, a wedding dress she loves more than anything found in the salons of Paris, and a fiancé willing to sacrifice his entire inheritance in order to marry her. But Rachel still mourns the fact that her birthfather, a man she never knew, won't be able to walk her down the aisle. Until: a shocking revelation draws Rachel into a world of Shanghai splendor beyond anything she has ever imagined. Here we meet Carlton, a Ferrari-crashing bad boy known for Prince Harry-like antics; Colette, a celebrity girlfriend chased by fevered paparazzi; and the man Rachel has spent her entire life waiting to meet: her father. Meanwhile, Singapore's It Girl, Astrid Leong, is shocked to discover that there is a downside to having a newly minted tech billionaire husband. A romp through Asia's most exclusive clubs, auction houses, and estates, China Rich Girlfriend brings us into the elite circles of Mainland China, introducing a captivating cast of characters, and offering an inside glimpse at what it's like to be gloriously, crazily, China-rich.

Book description credit: Book Depository