Asia Audiobooks | Travel

From the only American journalist ever to have been admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police press club: a unique, firsthand, revelatory look at Japanese culture from the underbelly up. At nineteen, Jake Adelstein went to Japan in search of peace and tranquility. What he got was a life of crime . . . crime reporting, that is, at the prestigious Yomiuri Shinbun. For twelve years of eighty-hour workweeks, he covered the seedy side of Japan, where extortion, murder, human trafficking, and corruption are as familiar as ramen noodles and sake. But when his final scoop brought him face to face with Japan's most infamous yakuza boss and the threat of death for him and his family Adelstein decided to step down . . . momentarily. Then, he fought back. In Tokyo Vice, Adelstein tells the riveting, often humorous tale of his journey from an inexperienced cub reporter who made rookie mistakes like getting into a martial-arts battle with a senior editor to a daring, investigative journalist with a price on his head. With its vivid, visceral descriptions of crime in Japan and an exploration of the world of modern-day yakuza that even few Japanese ever see, Tokyo Vice is a fascination, and an education, from first to last. From the Hardcover edition.

Jake Adelstein (Author), Jake Adelstein (Narrator)

Audiobook

Stilwell and the American Experience in China: 1911-1945

Tuchman uses the life of Joseph Stilwell, the military attach' to China in 1935 to 1939 and commander of United States forces and allied chief of staff to Chiang Kai-shek in 1942-44, to explore the history of China from the revolution of 1911 to the turmoil of World War II, when China's Nationalist government faced attack from Japanese invaders and Communist insurgents. Her story is an account of both American relations with China and the experiences of one of our men on the ground.

Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Pam Ward (Narrator)

Audiobook

Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath

For the first four months of 1942, U.S., Filipino, and Japanese soldiers fought what was America's first major land battle of World War II, the battle for the tiny Philippine peninsula of Bataan. It ended with the surrender of 76,000 Filipinos and Americans, the single largest defeat in American military history. The defeat, though, was only the beginning, as Michael and Elizabeth M. Norman make dramatically clear in this powerfully original book. From then until the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, the prisoners of war suffered an ordeal of unparalleled cruelty and savagery: forty-one months of captivity, starvation rations, dehydration, hard labor, deadly disease, and torture—far from the machinations of General Douglas MacArthur. The Normans bring to the story remarkable feats of reportage and literary empathy. Their protagonist, Ben Steele, is a figure out of Hemingway: a young cowboy turned sketch artist from Montana who joined the army to see the world. Juxtaposed against Steele's story and the sobering tale of the Death March and its aftermath is the story of a number of Japanese soldiers. The result is an altogether new and original World War II book: it exposes the myths of military heroism as shallow and inadequate; and it makes clear, with great literary and human power, that war causes suffering for people on all sides.

Elizabeth M. Norman, Michael Norman (Author), Michael Prichard (Narrator)

Audiobook

Tibet: In A Nutshell

'In a Nutshell', the new 1-CD audiobook series from Naxos AudioBooks, continues with a fascinating history of Tibet. Part of China for many years, yet with a clearly distinctive culture (with the central devotion of its people being to Buddhism and the Dalai Lama), Tibet has a unique character in the panoply of world nations. Here we have an independent view of its history and the customs and beliefs of its people - and a commentary on the current situation.

Jonathan Gregson (Author), David Rintoul, Malcolm Blackmoor, Nicolas Soames (Narrator)

Audiobook

Ground Truth: 3 Para Return to Afghanistan

Afghanistan, 2008. After their eighteen-month epic tour of Helmand Province, the troops of 3 Para are back. This time, the weight of experience weighs heavily on their shoulders. In April 2006 the elite 3 Para Battle Group was despatched to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on a tour that has become a legend. All that summer the Paras were subjected to relentless Taliban attacks in one of the most gruelling campaigns fought by British troops in modern times. Two years later the Paras are back in the pounding heat of the Afghanistan front lines. The conflict has changed. The enemy has been forced to adopt new weaponry and tactics. But how much progress are we really making in the war against the insurgents? And is there an end in sight? In this searing account of 3 Para's return, bestselling author Patrick Bishop combines gripping, first-person accounts of front-line action with an unflinching look at the hard realities of our involvement in Afghanistan. Writing from a position of exclusive access alongside the Paras, he reveals the 'ground truth' of the mission our soldiers have been given. It's a sombre picture. But shining out from it are stories of courage, comradeship and humour, as well as a gripping account of an epic humanitarian operation through Taliban-infested country to deliver a vitally needed turbine to the Kajaki Dam. Frank, action-packed and absorbing, 'Ground Truth' is a timely and important book that will set the agenda for discussion of the Afghan conflict for years to come.

Patrick Bishop (Author), Colin Salmon (Narrator)

Audiobook

Confessions of a Mullah Warrior

Masood Farivar was ten years old when his childhood in peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan was shattered by the Soviet invasion in 1979. He fled to Pakistan with his family and came of age in a madrassah for refugees. At eighteen, he defied his parents and returned home to join the jihad, fighting beside not only the Afghan mujahideen but also Arab and Pakistani volunteers. Farivar was stationed at Tora Bora and spent the next two years training for, fighting in, and reporting on the conflict. After the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, Farivar made his way from the caves of Tora Bora to Lawrenceville School, a private academy in suburban New Jersey, where he spent a year shoring up his academic credentials before moving on to Harvard. After graduating from Harvard with a degree in history and politics, Farivar traveled the United States by car and finally moved to New York City to pursue a career in journalism. During his ten years in the city, he witnessed the horror of 9/11, made several heartbreaking trips home to visit his family, and was ultimately propelled home for good in 2007. He now serves his country by running a national radio program. At a time when the war in Afghanistan is the focus of renewed attention, and its outcome is more crucial than ever to our own security, Farivar draws on his unique experience as a native Afghan, a former mujahideen fighter, and a longtime U.S. resident to provide unprecedented insight into the ongoing collision between Islam and the West. This is a visceral, clear-eyed, and illuminating memoir from an indispensable new voice on the world stage. An Atlantic Monthly Press book

Masood Farivar (Author), Christopher Lane (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan

The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a grueling debacle that has striking lessons for American foreign policy today. In The Great Gamble, Gregory Feifer examines the war from the perspective of the soldiers on the ground. During the last years of the Cold War, the Soviet Union sent some of its most elite troops to unfamiliar lands in Central Asia to fight a vaguely defined enemy, which eventually defeated their superior number with unconventional tactics. Although the Soviet leadership initially saw the invasion as a victory, many Russian soldiers came to view the war as a demoralizing and devastating defeat, the consequences of which had a substantial impact on the Soviet Union and its collapse. Feifer's extensive research includes fascinating interviews with participants from both sides of the conflict. In gripping detail, he vividly depicts the invasion of a volatile country that no power has ever successfully conquered. Parallels between the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are impossible to ignore: Both conflicts were waged amid vague ideological rhetoric about freedom. Both were roundly condemned by the outside world for trying to impose their favored forms of government on countries with very different ways of life. And both seem destined to end on uncertain terms. The Great Gamble tells an unforgettable story full of drama, action, and political intrigue whose relevance in our own time is greater than ever.

Gregory Feifer (Author), Robertson Dean (Narrator)

Audiobook

Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season

Nick Heil (Author), David Drummond (Narrator)

Audiobook

Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China

Prize-winning journalist Philip P. Pan offers an unprecedented inside look at the momentous battle underway for China's future. On one side is the entrenched party elite determined to preserve its authoritarian grip on power. On the other is a collection of lawyers, journalists, entrepreneurs, activists, hustlers, and dreamers striving to build a more tolerant, open, and democratic China. The outcome of this dramatic, hidden struggle will shape China's rise to superpower status—and determine how it affects the rest of the world. From factories in the rusting industrial northeast to a tabloid newsroom in the booming south, from a small-town courtroom to the plush offices of the nation's wealthiest tycoons, Pan speaks with men and women fighting and sacrificing for change. An elderly surgeon exposes the government's cover-up of the SARS epidemic. A filmmaker investigates the execution of a student in the Cultural Revolution. A blind man is jailed for leading a crusade against forced abortions carried out under the one-child policy. Out of Mao's Shadow offers a startling perspective on China and its remarkable transformation, challenging conventional wisdom about the political apathy of the Chinese people and the notion that prosperity leads automatically to freedom. Like David Remnick's Lenin's Tomb, this is the moving story of a nation in transition, of a people coming to terms with their past.

Philip P. Pan (Author), David Colacci (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries o

In sumptuous and illuminating detail Simon Winchester chronicles the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who turned his eccentric genius on the study of China. In 1937 Joseph Needham fell in love with a visiting Chinese student. He soon became fascinated by China, and his mistress persuaded him to travel to her home country. Thus began his undying passion for the world's most populous nation. Needham tackled one of the great, unanswered historical questions: Why did a nation that had invented so much and had enjoyed 5,000 years of flourishing civilization, fail to undergo an industrial revolution, and instead spend so many modern years mired in poverty and racked by instability and revolution? By the time he died, Needham had produced seventeen immense volumes on China, marking him as the greatest one-man encyclopaedist ever. Both epic and intimate, The Man Who Loved China tells the sweeping history of China through Needham's remarkable life. Here is an unforgettable tale by one of the world's inimitable storytellers.

Simon Winchester (Author), Simon Winchester (Narrator)

Audiobook

Roberts Ridge: A True Story of Courage and Sacrifice on Takur Ghar Mountain, Afghanistan

In this gripping you-are-there account based on stunning eyewitness testimony and painstaking research, journalist Malcolm MacPherson thrusts us into a drama of rescue, tragedy, and valor from the war in Afghanistan. For an elite team of SEALs, the mission seemed straightforward enough: to take control of a towering 10,240-foot mountain peak called Takur Ghar, a key post in their plan to smash Taliban al Qaeda in eastern Afghanistan. But the enemy was waiting, and when the Special Forces chopper was shredded by enemy fire, a red-haired SEAL named Neil Roberts was thrown from the aircraft. Roberts's fellow SEALs were determined to bring him out-no matter what the cost. This harrowing true account captures in dramatic detail their seventeen-hour battle, fought against near-impossible odds, to save one of their own. "An impressively detailed account of one heart-wrenching battle in the invasion of Afghanistan. MacPherson gives readers a rare, behind-the-scenes look....A Great read."-St. Petersburg Times

Malcolm Macpherson (Author), Joe Barrett (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Airmen and the Headhunters: A True Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesmen and the Unlikeliest

A cinematic survival story that features a bamboo airstrip built on a rice paddy, a mad British major, and a blowpipe-wielding army that helped destroy one of the last Japanese strongholds, The Airmen and the Headhunters is a gripping, you-are-there journey into the remote world and forgotten heroism of the Dayaks.

Judith M. Heimann (Author), Susan Ericksen (Narrator)

Audiobook

Asia Audiobooks in Travel