In Somebody Else's Skin

I note that among the books I have read recently there's a good proportion of novels taking place in different cultures. There is the Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (the meticulous account of a poor japanese fisherman’s daughter growing up to become a geisha in the Gion quarter of Kyoto in the 1930s) , The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad (vivid description of an Afghani middle class family in the Afghanistan of today), Falling Leaves by ADELINE YEN MAH (a somewhat self-indulgent memoir of an "unwanted Chinese daughter"), The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho (an Andalusian shepherd’s fabulous journey through Arabic country in search of a treasure; or his soul?), Life of Pi by Yann Martell (the incredible drift of Pi Patel from Pondicherry, India, in a lifeboat … in the Pacific Ocean … with a tiger). After travelling to Asia, three times in a row, that area of the world holds some fascination for me. Still, as for living there, well, that’s a completely different story, but perhaps best lived through the romanesque pages of a good book …