The Raj Quartet
by Paul Scott | 
A Division of the Spoils
by Paul Scott | 
The Day of the Scorpion
by Paul Scott | 
The Piano Tuner
by Daniel Mason | 
The Towers of Silence
by Paul Scott | 
Sea of Poppies
by Amitav Ghosh | 
An Atlas of Impossible Longing
by Anuradha Roy | 
The Jewel in the Crown
by Paul Scott | 
Mandala
by Pearl S. Buck | 
Raj
by Gita Mehta | 
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See | 
The Bonesetter's Daughter
by Amy Tan | 
The Kitchen God's Wife
by Amy Tan | 
The Siege of Krishnapur
by J. G. Farrell | 
The Hundred Secret Senses
by Amy Tan | 
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
by David Mitchell | 
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
by Dai Sijie | 
The Death of Vishnu
by Manil Suri | 
A Black Englishman
by Carolyn Slaughter | 
The Samurai's Garden
by Gail Tsukiyama |
Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love will shape his life. He cannot forget her, and years later, as a rich man, he goes in search of her. The struggles that have made Burma, India, and Malaya the places they are today are illuminated in this wonderful novel by the writer Chitra Divakaruni calls "a master storyteller."