Ian Buruma Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Modern Library Chronicles Books

Ian Buruma is a noteworthy author from the Netherlands, who is famous for writing nonfiction and historical fiction novels. He is also renowned historian and editor, and has worked in many parts of the world, including the United States. Most of his writings are based on the Asian culture, particularly that of the 20th century Japan and China. The other areas of work of author Buruma include Orientalism and Occidentalism. He became the editor of New York Books Review in 2017. In the period between 2003 and 2017, Buruma served as the Paul W Williams Journalism and Human Rights Professor at the Bard College. Author Buruma was born on December 25, 1951, in The Hague, Netherlands. Much of his upbringing was done in his hometown in The Hague. Buruma’s father was a Dutch citizen, while his mother was from the United Kingdom. After his initial studies in his town, Buruma moved out to join the Leiden University. There, he studied Chinese history and literature. Following this, he enrolled at the Nihon University, located in Tokyo, Japan, and studied a course in Japanese film. During this period, author Buruma met and fell in love with a Japanese woman named Hotta Eri. The two eventually got married. As of today, Hotta Eri is well known as a Japanese historian. Author Buruma resided in Japan between 1975 and 1981.

During this period, he was involved in a wide range of works such as film reviewing, documentary and filmmaking, and photography. In the early 1980s, Buruma got the chance to edit Far Eastern Economic Reviews’ cultural section. This work enabled him to visit Hong Kong. After this work, Buruma got involved in traveling throughout Asia. Throughout his travel time, he worked as a writer on a freelance basis. The experience helped him to discover the writer hidden in him. Today, he is included in the board of members of the Chinese Human Rights division. He is also a fellow member of the European Council’s Foreign Relations section. Since the year 1985, he has contributed a number of articles to the NY Review of Books. Buruma has held fellowships of multiple institutions all across the globe. This includes Berlin’s Wissenschaftskolleg in 1991, Washington DC’s Woodrow Wilson ICS. Currently, he holds the fellowship of Oxford’s St. Anthony’s College. Buruma was invited to deliver a lecture of Huizinga on the subject of Neoromanticism of the writers in exile, in Leiden, Netherlands in 2000.

For the books written by him, author Buruma has won a few prizes, including the PEN-Diamonstein Spielvogel Award and the Los Angeles Times Prize. Buruma is labeled as a well regarded European intellectual for his excellent works while holding academic and editorial positions. Popular film director of England, John Schlesinger, is the uncle of author Buruma. They published several interviews together in the form of books. Author Buruma always argues for the wholehearted participation of Britishers in European Union because he believes that they are the strongest champions of having a liberal approach to politics and commerce in entire Europe. Brumuma received the Erasmus Prize in 2008 for his dedicated contribution to society, social science, and culture in Europe. The popular magazine, Foreign Policy, included Buruma in the list of top 100 global thinkers in 2010. In 2012, author Buruma was awarded with an Abraham Kuyper award for excellent work in Reformed Theology & Public Life, during the Theological Seminary in Princeton.

An initial book written by author Ian Buruma is entitled ‘The China Lover’. This book was released by the Penguin Press in the year 2008. The main characters mentioned by Buruma in this novel include Yamaguchi Yoshiko, Isamu Noguchi, Yassir Arafat, etc. Through this book, author Buruma has tried to life story of a girl named Yamaguchi Yoshiko, who overcomes the difficulties of her life and safeguards her future. At the start of the book’s story, Ri Koran is introduced as a girl from Japan, who used to sing and act in Chinese and Japanese. Ri was made to keep her identity a secret forcefully in order to make her a Manchurian singer. Then, she was made to act in Chinese movies, often giving her roles of a Chinese beauty, who falls in love with empire builders from Japan. In the United States occupied Tokyo, Ri Koran makes a comeback to the screen with the screen name of Yamaguchi Yoshiko. She stars in the films that the cencors of America approves in order to promote the democracy of the American style. Yamaguchi decides to reinvent herself and moves to America. When the peace treaty is signed between the US and Japan, Yamaguchi begins to pursue the acting career in the US. This time, she takes a new name, Shirley Yamaguchi. Initially, she is cast in movies as an exotic beauty from Japan, who becomes the love interest of American soldiers. Later, Yamaguchi marries a Japanese-American sculptor named Isamu Noguchi. Isamu forces Yamaguchi to live like a traditional woman from Japan. But, her work and lifestyle make it difficult for Yamaguchi to fulfill the demands of Isamu. So, she parts her ways from him. She retires from acting and gets married to a Japanese diplomat. During the 1970s, Yamaguchi’s life takes a dramatic turn. After agreeing to work for a TV show, she asked to travel to the Middle East for the show’s shooting. There, she meets a Palestinian terrorist and a man named Yassir Arafat. Yamaguchi plays an important role in laying the foundation of the Palestinian-Japanese Friendship Association, but her career in Japan’s politics comes to an end. The story shows how Yamaguci Yoshiko gets torn between patriotism for her homeland, her parents, worldly ambition, and the sympathy towards the Chinese.

Another enlightening book that author Buruma wrote in his career is known as ‘Year Zero’. It was published in 2013 by the Penguin publication. This book is seen as a wonderful global history of 1945, showing how a new world order was established as the World War came to an end. As an uncertain, new world was getting formed, the change of regime was seen globally. Changes had started to take place in the different parts of Asia as well, including Korea, Japan, China, Phillipines, Indochina, etc. The transformation scale was so huge that it cannot be imagined in the human terms. Today’s great cities were in ruins, populations were displaced, decimated, and starving. There were wide scale revenges being taken. Welfare state of Europe, decolonization, United Nations, Japanese pacifism, European Union, etc., saw the light of the day and played important roles in changing the face of the world. As per Buruma, the efforts that were being made at that time were relatively humane, effective, and enlightened.