Asian Review of Books

I’m Nicholas Gordon, host of the Asian Review of Books podcast, done in partnership with the New Books Network. On this show, we interview authors writing in, around, and about the Asia-Pacific region. How do you tell the story of India–not just the modern-day country, but the whole region of South Asia, home to over two billion people? Historian Audrey Truschke’s newest book, India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent [https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/audrey-truschke-on-india-5000-years-of-history-on-the-subcontinent] (Princeton UP, 2025), starts at the very beginning: the rise of the Indus Valley Civilization, of which we still know frustratingly little. Her book covers millennia of history–the Vedas, Ashoka, the rise of Buddhism and Islam, the Mughals, the Marathas, the Company, and then newly independent India. Audrey Truschke is Professor of South Asian History at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. Her research focuses on the cultural, imperial, and intellectual history of medieval and early modern India as well as the politics of history in modern times. She is the author of four books. London-based business and culture journalist Prarthana Prakash joins me on the show today as a guest host. Find her on Linkedin [https://www.linkedin.com/in/prarthanaprakash/]. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books [https://asianreviewofbooks.com/], including its review of India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent [https://asianreviewofbooks.com/india-5000-years-of-history-on-the-subcontinent-by-audrey-truschke/]. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia [https://twitter.com/BookReviewsAsia]. Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon [https://twitter.com/nickrigordon?lang=en]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review]

How did Tokyo—Japan’s capital, global city, tourist hotspot and financial center—get to where it is today? Tokyo–or then, Edo–had a rather unglamorous start, as a backwater on Japan’s eastern coast before Tokugawa decided to make it his de facto capital. Eiko Maruko Siniawer [https://history.williams.edu/profile/emaruko/] picks ten distinct moments in Edo’s, and then Tokyo’s, history to show how this village became one of the world’s most important cities. Moments like a brief crackdown on kabuki theater, or the opening ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics make up the chapters of what’s appropriately titled Ten Moments That Shaped Tokyo [https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/history/east-asian-history/tokyo?format=PB] (Cambridge University Press: 2025) Eiko is the Charles R. Keller Professor of History at Williams College. A historian of modern Japan who has researched a wide range of topics, she is the author of three books—Ruffians, Yakuza, Nationalists: The Violent Politics of Modern Japan, 1860-1960 [https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801456824/ruffians-yakuza-nationalists/] (Cornell University Press: 2015), Waste: Consuming Postwar Japan [https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501778797/waste/#bookTabs=4] (Cornell University Press: 2024), and Ten Moments That Shaped Tokyo. She has also published articles in leading academic journals, such as “‘Affluence of the Heart’: Wastefulness and the Search for Meaning in Millennial Japan” in the Journal of Asian Studies, and “‘Toilet Paper Panic’: Uncertainty and Insecurity in Early 1970s Japan [https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/126/2/530/6316740]” in the American Historical Review. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books [https://asianreviewofbooks.com/], including its review of Ten Moments That Shaped Tokyo [https://asianreviewofbooks.com/ten-moments-that-shaped-tokyo-by-eiko-maruko-siniawer/]. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia [https://twitter.com/BookReviewsAsia]. Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon [https://twitter.com/nickrigordon?lang=en]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review]

In 2019, famed journalist and writer Aatish Taseer was thrown out of India. Soon after he wrote a cover article for Time calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi the country’s “divider in chief,” New Delhi decided to revoke his residency. That sent Aatish on a journey across the world–to places like Turkey, Spain, Mexico and Sri Lanka–to explore identity, both his own and of different nations. The result is his latest book, A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile (Catapult: 2025). Aatish is the author of the memoir Stranger to History: A Son’s Journey Through Islamic Lands (Canongate: 2009) and the acclaimed novels The Way Things Were (Pan Macmillan: 2014), a finalist for the 2016 Jan Michalski Prize, The Temple-Goers (Viking: 2010), short-listed for the Costa First Novel Award, and Noon (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 2011); and the memoir and travelog The Twice-Born (Hurst: 2019). You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books [https://asianreviewofbooks.com/], including its review of A Return to Self [https://asianreviewofbooks.com/a-return-to-self-excursions-in-exile-by-aatish-taseer/]. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia [https://twitter.com/BookReviewsAsia]. Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon [https://twitter.com/nickrigordon?lang=en]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review]

Sanjana Satyananda, the main character of Sanjena Sathian’s novel, Goddess Complex [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9780593489772] (Penguin Press, 2025), is a bit of a mess. She’s back in the States after a spell in India, ending her marriage with her actor husband when he wanted kids…and she didn’t. Her friends are starting to settle down–and wondering when Sanjana will do the same. And, distressingly, others in her life swear they’ve seen her back in India, still married to her husband, and happily pregnant. This question–who is the woman that’s encroaching on Sanjana’s life–motivates Goddess Complex, with the novel eventually returning to India to explore the pressure to have children, the rise of social media and mommy bloggers, and the strange appeal of cults. Sanjena Sathian is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Goddess Complex and Gold Diggers, both published by Penguin Press. Goddess Complex, released in March of 2025, was named a top anticipated book of the year by TIME and has been named a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Gold Diggers was named a Top 10 Best Book of 2021 by the Washington Post and longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. Sanjena can be followed on Substack at: https://sanjena.substack.com/ [https://sanjena.substack.com/] You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books [https://asianreviewofbooks.com/], including its review of Goddess Complex [https://asianreviewofbooks.com/goddess-complex-by-sanjena-sathian/]. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia [https://twitter.com/BookReviewsAsia]. Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at@nickrigordon [https://twitter.com/nickrigordon?lang=en]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review]

The Russians came late to Japan, arriving after the Portuguese and other European powers. But as soon as they arrived, Russia tried to use spies and espionage to learn more about their neighbor—with various degrees of success. Sometimes, it failed miserably, like Russia’s early attempts to make contact with pre-Meiji Japan, or the debacle during the Russo-Japanese War. Other times, they were wildly successful, like during the Battle of Khalkin Gol or with Richard Sorge’s spy ring during the Second World War. James D. Brown covers Russia and the Soviet Union’s efforts to learn more about Japan in Cracking the Crab: Russian Espionage Against Japan, from Peter the Great to Richard Sorge [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9780197829837] (Hurst, 2025), covering much both the famous examples of Russian spycraft, and the lesser-known missions—like Operation Postman, a successful effort to read the mail of Japanese diplomats in Italy. James is Professor of Political Science at Temple University, Japan. He is a specialist on East Asian politics and a regular media contributor, including for the BBC. His books include Japan, Russia and their Territorial Dispute (Routledge: 2016); and Japan’s Foreign Relations in Asia (Routledge: 2018) and The Abe Legacy (Lexington Books: 2023) You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books [https://asianreviewofbooks.com/], including its review of Cracking the Crab [https://asianreviewofbooks.com/cracking-the-crab-russian-espionage-against-japan-from-peter-the-great-to-richard-sorge-by-james-dj-brown/]. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia [https://twitter.com/BookReviewsAsia]. Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at@nickrigordon [https://twitter.com/nickrigordon?lang=en]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review]