Five months ago, an editor mentioned to me that publishers in India believe that Asian literature, apart from books written in the subcontinent, will not sell. I was taken aback by the idea, but I didn't know what to say. I had not thought about it at all, so I did not have an opinion.Naturally, the conversation got me thinking. What was the last book I read that was Asian, but not from the subcontinent?I thought of Chinese Cinderella and The Joy Luck Club. Both long ago.It was time to change that. I began with Pachinko and liked it a lot. I wanted to read more, particularly children's literature. The best place to begin, I thought, was the Scholastic Asian Book Award, so I began my research.I found only three books that were affordable, and wondered, would that be one of the reasons I haven't read much Asian literature that does not hail from the subcontinent?I began … [Read more...]