6+ AAPI Novels From Different Genres Featuring Older Women Characters

Many readers online are currently participating in Booktuber Cindy Pham‘s fourth annual Asian Readathon. The festivities encourage readers to pick up more Asian stories (including books by Asian authors or with Asian characters) from libraries and bookstores in celebration of AAPI Heritage Month. Every year, she comes up with a handful of pretty simple prompts so that some readers can complete the challenges, even only reading one or two books. The challenges are still super accessible this year, but Pham decided to go with a theme. For 2022, she made each prompt inspired by the best movie of year so far, Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Feel free to browse all the prompts, but the one I am most interested in is “Read a book featuring an Asian character who is a woman AND/OR older.” In addition to other revolutionary things about EEAAO, having two prominent older women in the cast (Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis), especially one being a woman of color, was significant. Regarding Yeoh’s character, Evelyn, her life experience makes the story. Pham states in her intro video that “old” is very subjective. A sophomore in high school may think that 30s is old (especially considering how popular media enforces this), while someone in their late 40s might think of “old” as someone in their 60s.

Because I’m extra, I created a list of AAPI novels with older women written by authors of this heritage. A two-for-one on the prompt! The books start with main or prominent characters in their mid-20s and higher. I’m currently reading Hawaii’s Story by Queen Lili’uokalani to balance out all the fiction graphic novels for the other prompts. Because it’s non-fiction, I didn’t include it, but feel free to check it out alongside these stories below!

The Farm by Joanne Ramos

Nestled in New York’s Hudson Valley is a luxury retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, personal fitness trainers, daily massages–and all of it for free. In fact, you’re paid big money to stay here–more than you’ve ever dreamed of. The catch? For nine months, you cannot leave the grounds, your movements are monitored, and you are cut off from your former life while you dedicate yourself to the task of producing the perfect baby. For someone else.

Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines, is in desperate search of a better future when she commits to being a “Host” at Golden Oaks–or the Farm, as residents call it. But now pregnant, fragile, consumed with worry for her family, Jane is determined to reconnect with her life outside. Yet she cannot leave the Farm or she will lose the life-changing fee she’ll receive on the delivery of her child.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

Nuri is a beekeeper and Afra, his wife, is an artist. Mornings, Nuri rises early to hear the call to prayer before driving to his hives in the countryside. On weekends, Afra sells her colorful landscape paintings at the open-air market. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the hills of the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo–until the unthinkable happens. When all they love is destroyed by war, Nuri knows they have no choice except to leave their home. But escaping Syria will be no easy task: Afra has lost her sight, leaving Nuri to navigate her grief as well as a perilous journey through Turkey and Greece toward an uncertain future in Britain.

Nuri is sustained only by the knowledge that waiting for them is his cousin Mustafa, who has started an apiary in Yorkshire and is teaching fellow refugees beekeeping. As Nuri and Afra travel through a broken world, they must confront not only the pain of their own unspeakable loss but dangers that would overwhelm even the bravest souls. Above all, they must make the difficult journey back to each other, a path once so familiar yet rendered foreign by the heartache of displacement.

Frangipani by Célestine Vaite

In Tahiti, it’s a well-known fact that women are wisest, mothers know best, and Materena Mahi knows best of all — or so everyone except for her own daughter thinks. Soon enough, mother and daughter are engaged in a tug-of-war that tests the bonds of their love.

Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho

At thirty-three, Andrea Tang is living the dream: She has a successful career as a lawyer, a posh condo, and a clutch of fun-loving friends who are always in the know about Singapore’s hottest clubs. All she has to do is make law partner, and her life will be perfect. And if she’s about to become the lone unmarried member of her generation in the Tang clan–a disappointment her meddling Chinese-Malaysian family won’t let her forget–well, she doesn’t need a man to complete her.

Yet when a chance encounter with charming, wealthy entrepreneur Eric Deng offers her a glimpse of an exciting, limitless future, Andrea decides to give Mr. Right-for-her-family a chance. Too bad Suresh Aditparan, her office rival and the last man her family would approve of, keeps throwing a wrench in her plans. Now Andrea can’t help but wonder: In the endless tug-of-war between pleasing others and pleasing herself, is there room for everyone to win?

Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy

On a train bound for the seaside town of Jarmuli, known for its temples, three elderly women meet a young documentary filmmaker named Nomi, whose braided hair, tattoos, and foreign air set her apart. At a brief stop en route, the women witness a sudden assault on Nomi that leaves her stranded as the train pulls away.

Later in Jarmuli, among pilgrims, priests, and ashrams, the women disembark only to find that Nomi has managed to arrive on her own. What is someone like her, clearly not a worshipper, doing in this remote place? Over the next five days, the women live out their long-planned dream of a holiday together; their temple guide pursues a forbidden love; and Nomi is joined by a photographer to scout locations for a documentary. As their lives overlap and collide, Nomi’s past comes into focus, and the serene surface of the town is punctured by violence and abuse as Jarmuli is revealed as a place with a long, dark history that transforms all who encounter it.

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. She can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with Harriet, their cherubic daughter, does Frida finally attain the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she is just enough. Until Frida has a very bad day.

The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida. The ones who check their phones, letting their children get injured on the playground; who let their children walk home alone. Because of one moment of poor judgment, a host of government officials will now determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion.

Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that a bad mother can be redeemed. That she can learn to be good.

Honorable mentions

To keep this list manageable, I’ve included some honorable mentions. These are books brought up in a recent-ish list or story. These stories still follow the prompt, but I did include one man at the end of the list.

• Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (First Five-Star read of 2022)
• Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (translated credit)
• Dial a for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto (April 2021 TMS Bookclub pick)
• Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (mentioned here)
• The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez (mentioned by Jesse)

(featured image: Ballantine Books, Graywolf Press, and Back Bay Books)

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