Susan Blumberg-Kason

1 week ago | asianreviewofbooks.com | Susan Blumberg-Kason

As Merle Oberon starred in four dozen films during the golden age of Hollywood, she kept a secret that could have immediately destroyed her career: she was biracial and was born and raised in India. While no longer a secret, her story has all but been forgotten. Mayukh Sen's new biography of Oberon, Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star, the first in decades, uniquely delves into her family's background going back to Bombay and Calcutta, where she was born and grew up.

2 weeks ago | asianreviewofbooks.com | Susan Blumberg-Kason

enowned poet and Hebrew translator of Greek drama, Aharon Shabtai, now 85, has a new collection, Requiem and Other Poems, translated by Peter Cole, that spans the early years of Israel to the days just after 7 October 2023. The book, although concise at just 87 pages, provides a vivid and comprehensive look at a writer who has spent his life promoting peace. The book is centered around an epic poem set from the end of the British Mandate to the early years of the State of Israel.

1 month ago | asianreviewofbooks.com | Susan Blumberg-Kason

From the look of the cover design and the description, readers may think that Mizuki Tsujimura's novel Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon is yet another example of Japanese healing (or comfort) fiction. Most Japanese healing novels are slim with an inviting cover in soft pastels. The stories center around lost individuals who hope to find happiness in their unfulfilling lives. And they often make use of magical realism.

1 month ago | asianreviewofbooks.com | Susan Blumberg-Kason

Radha Vatsal specializes in mysteries set in World War I-era New York City. Her latest, No 10 Doyers Street, is set a decade before that in 1907 New York City when mayor George B McClellan had grand plans to build new parks and bring safe drinking water to residents of the city. One of these plans included bulldozing Chinatown so it could be turned into one of these planned parks.

2 months ago | asianreviewofbooks.com | Susan Blumberg-Kason

Miyoung has left her home in Japanese-occupied Korea to join her older sister in Kyoto to study. As what would be World War 2 begins to loom, and anti-Korean sentiment rises, Miyoung is caught between the need to pass as Japanese and a romance with an activist. Author Rosa Kwon Easton's family immigrated to the US from Korea when she was seven, but her family history involves more than just simply trading one country for another. Her father was born in Japan and spoke Japanese as a child.