17 Books Similar To Crazy Rich Asians That You’ll LOVE

If you liked Crazy Rich Asians, then you’ll love these 17 books by brilliant Asian authors. These books like Crazy Rich Asians will transport you to different realms of Asia, exploring similar themes and scandalous antics.

Crazy Rich Asians has become one of the most beloved contemporary novels about family, wealth and cultural identity, and its hugely successful film adaptation brought Kevin Kwan’s story to an even wider audience.

With its all-Asian cast, the movie was also widely celebrated for its impact on representation in mainstream Hollywood, while entertaining audiences around the world.

The story began with Kevin Kwan’s 2013 novel Crazy Rich Asians, which follows Rachel Chu, a NYU economics professor who travels to Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, for his best friend’s wedding.

Little does she know that Nick Young comes from one of the wealthiest families in Singapore, and she’s about to be delivered on a platter to the wolf that is his mother.

Eleanor Young only wants the best for her son, and she’s convinced that Rachel is not that, so she digs into the poor girl’s background (pun not intended) with the intention of splitting the pair up before their romance develops any further.

The story is told from multiple perspectives, giving an insight into the lives of numerous different parties in “Crazy Rich Asia”, which are all very different but equally hilarious.

You’ll meet lavish spenders, families obsessed with appearances, status and wealth, as well as some down-to-earth characters unfazed by the masses of wealth surrounding their crazy families. 

If you loved the sharp humour, cultural commentary and family dynamics of Crazy Rich Asians, this list brings together 15 books with a similar spirit.

Some are funny, some are heartbreaking, but these stories all centre on other Asian families, often Asian American ones. But most importantly, they are all written by brilliant Asian authors. 

Books Like Crazy Rich Asians

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan

The Blurb

It’s the eve of Rachel Chu’s wedding, and she should be over the moon. She has a flawless Asscher-cut diamond, a wedding dress she loves, and a fiancé willing to thwart his meddling relatives and give up one of the biggest fortunes in Asia in order to marry her.

Still, Rachel mourns the fact that her birthfather, a man she never knew, won’t be there to walk her down the aisle. 

Then a chance accident reveals his identity. Suddenly, Rachel is drawn into a dizzying world of Shanghai splendor, a world where people attend church in a penthouse, where exotic cars race down the boulevard, and where people aren’t just crazy rich … they’re China rich.

Why read this?

Many fans of Crazy Rich Asians are surprised to learn that the novel is actually the first book in a trilogy and that there are two more books in this crazy world.

Yes, two!

This sequel expands the world beyond Singapore and turns the volume up on both the drama and the satire.

In China Rich Girlfriend, we see Rachel about to wed the dashing (and super rich) Nick Young.

However, Nick and Rachel are no longer the main couple of the series as many of our favourite side characters from Crazy Rich Asians step into the limelight.

Astrid’s found that newlywed life doesn’t come without its problems when you’re marrying a tech billionaire. 

Meanwhile, Kitty Pong is trying to rebrand her image whilst hiding a big secret.

China Rich Girlfriend is much more “Gossip Girl” than the first and takes us away from Singapore to Mainland China, where we are introduced to the filthy rich circles that reside there.

And they’re even crazier than those we’ve already met!

If you loved Crazy Rich Asians for its outrageous wealth, biting humour and sharp observations about status and family expectations, this book delivers all of that – and more.

It also offers a fascinating look at the cultural differences between Singaporean, Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese elite circles, which adds real depth beneath the glitz – Asians are not all the same!

China Rich Girlfriendis available from: Amazon

Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan

The Blurb

When Nicholas Young hears that his grandmother, Su Yi, is on her deathbed, he rushes to be by her bedside—but he’s not alone. The entire Shang-Young clan has convened from all corners of the globe to stake claim on their matriarch’s massive fortune.

With each family member vying to inherit Tyersall Park—a trophy estate on 64 prime acres in the heart of Singapore—Nicholas’s childhood home turns into a hotbed of speculation and sabotage.

As her relatives fight over heirlooms, Astrid Leong is at the center of her own storm, desperately in love with her old sweetheart Charlie Wu, but tormented by her ex-husband—a man hell bent on destroying Astrid’s reputation and relationship.

Meanwhile Kitty Pong, married to China’s second richest man, billionaire Jack Bing, still feels second best next to her new step-daughter, famous fashionista Colette Bing.

A sweeping novel that takes us from the elegantly appointed mansions of Manila to the secluded private islands in the Sulu Sea, from a kidnapping at Hong Kong’s most elite private school to a surprise marriage proposal at an Indian palace, caught on camera by the telephoto lenses of paparazzi, Kevin Kwan’s hilarious, gloriously wicked new novel reveals the long-buried secrets of Asia’s most privileged families and their rich people problems.

Why read this?

If you enjoyed the escalating drama of China Rich Girlfriend, this final book in the trilogy is a hugely satisfying conclusion.

This is the most dramatic of the three novels, leaning fully into inheritance wars, family secrets and ruthless social climbing.

In Rich People Problems, Nick Young’s grandmother, Su Yi, is on her deathbed.

Unsurprisingly, the whole family have flocked to her bedside, hoping to be the recipients of some of the vast fortune that she holds the keys to.

All I’m going to say is – people show their true colours when there’s a huge inheritance at stake!

If you loved Crazy Rich Asians for its dysfunctional families, lavish settings and over-the-top antics, this book takes all of that to its absolute peak.

It’s juicy, fast-paced and unashamedly extravagant – exactly what you want from a final return to Crazy Rich Asia.

Rich People Problemsis available from: Amazon

The Wangs vs The World by Jade Chang

The Blurb

Charles Wang has just lost the cosmetics fortune he built up since emigrating to the US. Gone are the houses, the cars, and the incredible lifestyle. Faced with this loss, he decides to take his family on a trip to China and attempt to reclaim his ancestral lands.

But first they must go on a cross-country journey from their foreclosed Bel-Air home to the Upstate New York retreat of his eldest daughter, Saina. Charles takes his other two children out of schools that he can no longer afford and packs them into the only car that wasn’t repossessed – along with their wealth-addicted stepmother, Barbra.

But with his son waylaid by a much older temptress in New Orleans, his wife ready to defect for a set of 1,000-thread-count sheets, and an epic smash-up in North Carolina, Charles may have to choose between the old world and the new, between keeping his family intact and finally, finally fulfilling his dream of China.

Why read this?

Often compared directly to Crazy Rich Asians, The Wangs vs The World is a brilliant read that flips Kevin Kwan’s formula on its head.

This book asks a simple but irresistible question: what happens when a ridiculously wealthy family suddenly loses everything? The humour is sharp, the family dynamics are chaotic, and the cultural commentary is spot on.

If you enjoyed the “old money vs new money” tensions in Crazy Rich Asians, you’ll especially appreciate how this novel explores wealth, entitlement and identity through a Chinese-American lens.

The Wangs are exactly the sort of family Eleanor Young would have despised, which makes their downfall all the more entertaining.

Check out my book review of The Wangs vs The World here.

The Wangs vs The Worldis available from: Amazon

Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho

The Blurb

Like all good Chinese children, Andrea Tang is doing her best to fulfil all her mother’s plans for her life: she’s on track to become partner at a top law firm in Singapore, she has a beautiful apartment in the right postcode and a perfect boyfriend who is practically made of husband material.

Except that those plans are unravelling fast: there’s an unfairly attractive new lawyer out to steal her promotion, she has credit-card debt up to her eyeballs, her perfect boyfriend is now her perfect ex-boyfriend and the last single cousin in her family just got engaged, leaving her exposed to romantic meddling on all sides…

Why read this?

If Crazy Rich Asians and Bridget Jones’s Diary had a bookish baby, it would be Last Tang Standing.

This is a very funny, very sharp, and surprisingly relatable story about a fiercely capable woman in her 30s with a highly successful career – and an Asian family who simply will not stop nagging her about why she isn’t married yet.

Like Crazy Rich Asians, there’s plenty of humour rooted in family expectations, social pressure and cultural tradition, but the focus here is more intimate and contemporary.

Instead of billionaires and private jets, we’re in the world of work, dating, and family dinners where well-meaning relatives ask far too many personal questions.

As a lawyer myself, I found the heroine’s professional life especially entertaining and believable, and her struggles with balancing ambition, independence and family duty feel refreshingly honest.

If you loved the witty, family-centred, culture-clash elements of Crazy Rich Asians, but want something lighter, more modern and deeply relatable, this is a brilliant pick.

Last Tang Standingis available from: Amazon

The Dim Sum of All Things by Kim Wong Keltner

The Blurb

Have you ever wondered:
Why Asians love “Hello Kitty”?
What the tattooed Chinese characters really say?
How to achieve feng shui for optimum make-out sessions?
Where Asian cuties meet the white guys who love them?

Then you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll realize this book is better than a Broadway production of Cats when you read scenes that include:

• twenty-something Lindsey Owyang mastering the intricacies of office voicemail and fax dialing
• an authentic Chinese banquet where Number One Son shows off his language skills by speaking “Chinglish”
• dating disasters with grandsons of Grandma’s mahjong partners
• the discovery that the real China looks nothing like the pavilion at Disney World
• karaoke

And all the while Lindsey is falling in lust with the “white devil” in her politically correct office. But will Grandma’s stinky Chinese ointments send him running? Or will Lindsey realize that the path to true love lies somewhere between the dim sum and the pepperoni pizza?

Why read this?

This is a great pick if you loved the lighter, rom-com elements of Crazy Rich Asians.

While it isn’t about extreme wealth, it explores similar themes of dating, family expectations and navigating Asian identity in Western spaces. The humour is sharp, observational and often laugh-out-loud funny.

If you enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians for its wit and cultural insight rather than just the luxury, this is a fun, fast-paced read that hits many of the same notes.

The Dim Sum of All Things is available from: Amazon

Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw

The Blurb

Longlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize, the overlapping lives of five newcomers to China’s most dynamic city are the subject of this kaleidoscopic novel.

Welcome to Shanghai. A restless metropolis where old traditions collide with new ambitions – a place where anything can happen and anyone can become Somebody.

Golddigger, property magnate, pop star, entrepreneur and guru: five newcomers are lured by the promise of making fortunes and remaking identities. But they find their lives converging in unpredictable ways, as the Five Star Billionaire’s lessons for success wreak havoc. For in a land where dreams may come true, nothing is ever quite as it seems…

Why read this?

Five Star Billionaire is often described as the more literary cousin of Crazy Rich Asians and it gives an amazing glimpse of what it’s like to live in rising China by following the lives of four characters pursuing their dreams in Shanghai.

Phoebe, Gary, Justin and Yinghui all have completely different backgrounds and aspirations but they each have connections to Walter Chao, the five-star billionaire, who has a hand in each of their fates.

Instead of focusing on inherited wealth, this novel explores ambition, reinvention and the desire to succeed in modern China. If the money and social climbing in Crazy Rich Asians intrigued you, this book shows the other side of that dream – before the penthouses and private jets arrive!

It’s a quieter, more reflective story, but it offers a rich and fascinating portrait of contemporary China and the cost of chasing success.

Five Star Billionaireis available from: Amazon

The Windfall by Diksha Basu

The Blurb

Anil Kumar Jha has worked hard and is ready to live well. After thirty years in a modest flat, he and his family are moving to Gurgaon, one of Delhi’s richest areas.

But his wife, Bindu, is heartbroken about leaving their neighbours, and doesn’t want to wear designer saris or understand interior decoration. Meanwhile their son, Rupak, is failing business school in the US – and secretly dating an American girl.

Once installed in their mansion, the Jhas are soon drawn into a feverish game of one-upmanship with their new neighbours, the Chopras, as each couple seeks to outdo the other with increasingly lavish displays of wealth. As an imitation Sistene Chapel is pitted against a crystal-encrusted sofa, Bindu wonders where it will all end.

A sharply observed tale of social aspiration and anxiety, The Windfall is a thoroughly modern comedy of manners about family, friendship and what it means to belong in a rapidly changing India.

Why read this?

The Windfall feels like The Wangs vs The World in reverse and is a sharp, satirical take on sudden wealth in modern India.

The Jhas have lived modestly for years, but when Mr Jha comes into a huge sum of money, everything changes. Suddenly status, appearances and keeping up with wealthy neighbours take centre stage.

All he wants to do is fit in with all the other men of status that he’s suddenly found himself living amongst, with polished shoes, hired guards and more. All this rocks his relationship with his wife and son, and ultimately he is forced to recognise what really matters in life.  

If you enjoyed the satire in Crazy Rich Asians (especially its take on social climbing and insecurity), this book delivers similar humour while ultimately asking what really matters when money enters the picture.

The Windfallis available from: Amazon

Sarong Party Girls by Cheryl Tan

The Blurb

Just before her twenty-seventh birthday, Jazzy hatches a plan. Before the year is out, she and her best girlfriends will all have spectacular weddings to rich ang moh – Western expat – husbands, with Chanel babies to follow.

As Jazzy – razor-sharp and vulgar, yet vulnerable – fervently pursues her quest to find a white husband, the contentious gender politics and class tensions thrumming beneath the shiny exterior of Singapore’s glamorous nightclubs are revealed. Desperate to move up in Asia’s financial and international capital, will Jazzy and her friends succeed?

Vividly told in Singlish – colourful Singaporean English with its distinctive cadence and slang – Sarong Party Girls brilliantly captures the unique voice of a young, striving woman caught between worlds. With remarkable vibrancy and empathy, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan brings not only Jazzy, but her city of Singapore, to dazzling, dizzying life.

Why read this?

If you’re looking for books like Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians, then Sarong Party Girls is also set amongst the elite of Singapore – but this time from a very different perspective.

This novel follows Jazzy as she hunts for a wealthy Western husband, offering a bold and often uncomfortable look at class, race and ambition.

It’s packed with Singlish references and gives a vivid sense of modern Singapore’s nightlife and social hierarchy.

If Kitty Pong was one of your favourite characters in Crazy Rich Asians, this book feels like her spiritual successor.

Sarong Party Girlsis available from: Amazon

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The Blurb

In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of what they left behind in China. United in loss and new hope for their daughters’ futures, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club.

Their daughters, who have never heard these stories, think their mothers’ advice is irrelevant to their modern American lives – until their own inner crises reveal how much they’ve unknowingly inherited of their mothers’ pasts.

The Joy Luck Club, contrary to the title, has none of the humour that you’ll find in Crazy Rich Asians. The two books’ similarities lie in their shared insights into families that clash when East meets West.

Why read this?

While The Joy Luck Club doesn’t share the humour of Crazy Rich Asians, the similarities lie in its exploration of family and cultural tension.

Told through multiple perspectives, the novel alternates between mothers and daughters, revealing the challenges of growing up between two cultures.

It’s a powerful examination of generational misunderstanding and inherited trauma.

If Crazy Rich Asians sparked an interest in Asian-American family stories beyond wealth and satire, this is an essential read.

The Joy Luck Clubis available from: Amazon

Counterfeit by Kristin Chen

The Blurb

Money can’t buy happiness… but it can buy a decent fake.

Ava Wong has always played it safe. As a strait-laced, rule-abiding Chinese American lawyer with a successful surgeon as a husband, a young son, and a beautiful home–she’s built the perfect life.

But beneath this façade, Ava’s world is crumbling: her marriage is falling apart, her expensive law degree hasn’t been used in years, and her toddler’s tantrums are pushing her to the breaking point.

Enter Winnie Fang, Ava’s enigmatic college roommate from Mainland China, who abruptly dropped out under mysterious circumstances.

Now, twenty years later, Winnie is looking to reconnect with her old friend. But the shy, awkward girl Ava once knew has been replaced with a confident woman of the world, dripping in luxury goods, including a coveted Birkin in classic orange.

The secret to her success?

Winnie has developed an ingenious counterfeit scheme that involves importing near-exact replicas of luxury handbags and now she needs someone with a U.S. passport to help manage her business–someone who’d never be suspected of wrongdoing, someone like Ava.

But when their spectacular success is threatened and Winnie vanishes once again, Ava is left to face the consequences.

If you enjoyed the glamour, social climbing and moral ambiguity of Crazy Rich Asians, then Counterfeit is a deliciously addictive follow-up read.

This fast-paced novel follows two women whose lives collide in the world of luxury handbags, elite social circles and questionable ethics. Like Kevin Kwan’s work, it’s sharp, satirical and very funny, but with a darker, more suspenseful edge.

What makes Counterfeit especially compelling is the way it explores ambition, friendship and class, particularly within Asian and Asian-American communities.

It has the same sense of spectacle and insider access as Crazy Rich Asians, but swaps the Singaporean elite for the glossy, cutthroat world of New York fashion and wealth.

If you loved the blend of drama, wealth and social commentary in Crazy Rich Asians, this is a smart, bingeable novel that delivers all of that with a modern, high-stakes twist.

Counterfeitis available from: Amazon

Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li

The Blurb

The popular Beijing Duck House has been serving devoted regulars for decades. Yet behind the staff’s professional smiles simmer tensions, heartaches and grudges from years of bustling restaurant life.

When disaster strikes, two of the younger generation find themselves in a dangerous game that means tragedy for the Duck House. And soon, their families are forced to finally confront the conflicts and loyalties playing out beneath the red and gold lanterns.

Why read this?

Number One Chinese Restaurant explores family pressure and expectation in a way that feels very similar to Crazy Rich Asians, just on a smaller scale.

Set within a long-running family restaurant, it reveals how unresolved tensions simmer beneath the surface of everyday life. When disaster strikes, those hidden conflicts are finally forced into the open.

If you enjoyed the way Crazy Rich Asians exposes what’s really going on behind polished façades, this book does the same, without the private jets.

Number One Chinese Restaurantis available from: Amazon

The Expatriates by Janice Y K Lee

The Blurb

Mercy, a young Korean American and recent Columbia graduate, is adrift, undone by a terrible incident in her recent past. Hilary, a wealthy housewife, is haunted by her struggle to have a child, something she believes could save her foundering marriage.

Meanwhile, Margaret, once a happily married mother of three, questions her maternal identity in the wake of a shattering loss. As each woman struggles with her own demons, their lives collide in ways that have irreversible consequences for them all.

Atmospheric, moving, and utterly compelling, The Expatriates confirms Lee as an exceptional talent and one of our keenest observers of women’s inner lives.

Why read this?

The Expatriates is a quieter, more introspective counterpart to Crazy Rich Asians and acts like The Joy Luck Club in reverse, It focusses on three American expatriates living in Hong Kong, all at very different points of their lives, who find their stories tangled up with each other.

They all live in the “American Zone” with almost no contact with the people of Hong Kong. It’s a poignant story about women and mothers and what it’s like to feel alienated in unfamiliar Asian territory.  

The setting is glamorous on the surface, but emotionally the story is raw and unsettling and explores themes of grief, motherhood, privilege and isolation.

If you loved the sense of place in Crazy Rich Asians but want something more reflective, this is a beautiful and haunting read.

The Expatriatesis available from: Amazon

Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee

The Blurb

Casey Han’s parents, who live in Queens, are Korean immigrants working in a dry cleaner, desperately trying to hold on to their culture and their identity. Their daughter, on the other hand, has entered into rarified American society via scholarships.

Free Food for Millionaires offers up a fresh exploration of the complex layers we inhabit both in society and within ourselves and examines maintaining one’s identity within changing communities.

Why read this?

This book works as a smart contrast to Crazy Rich Asians.

Casey Han is the daughter of two Korean immigrants living in America. Upon graduating from Princeton, she finds that although she’s had the same education, she lacks the connections and opportunities her white friends now have.

Rather than inherited wealth, it focuses on ambition, class anxiety and the desire to break into elite spaces without the right connections. Money is still central, but power and privilege sit firmly elsewhere.

If you enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians but were curious about who doesn’t get invited into those glittering circles, this novel explores that tension brilliantly.

Free Food Millionairesis available from: Amazon

What We Were Promised by Lucy Tan

The Blurb

After years of chasing the American dream, the Zhen family has moved back to China. Settling into a luxurious serviced apartment in Shanghai, Wei, Lina, and their daughter, Karen, join an elite community of Chinese-born, Western-educated professionals who have returned to a radically transformed city.

One morning, in the eighth tower of Lanson Suites, Lina discovers that a treasured ivory bracelet has gone missing. This incident sets off a wave of unease that ripples throughout the Zhen household. Wei, a marketing strategist, bows under the guilt of not having engaged in nobler work. Meanwhile, Lina, lonely in her new life of leisure, assumes the modern moniker taitai -a housewife who does no housework at all.

She is haunted by the circumstances surrounding her arranged marriage to Wei and her lingering feelings for his brother, Qiang. Sunny, the family’s housekeeper, is a keen but silent observer of these tensions. An unmarried woman trying to carve a place for herself in society, she understands the power of well-kept secrets. When Qiang reappears in Shanghai after decades on the run with a local gang, the family must finally come to terms with the past and its indelible mark on their futures.

Why read this?

From a silk-producing village in rural China, up the corporate ladder in suburban America, and back again to the post-Maoist nouveaux riches of modern Shanghai, What We Were Promised explores the question of what we owe to our country, our families, and ourselves.

What We Were Promised is another story of a family returning East as the Western-educated Zhen family moves back to a radically different motherland.

They started out in rural China, moved West to pursue the American dream, but now they’re back to the nouveau riche of Shanghai. It’s the story of what you owe your people and your country and what you were promised. 

If you liked Crazy Rich Asians for its exploration of identity across cultures and borders, this book offers a more emotionally complex take on similar themes.

What We Were Promised is available from: Amazon

Chemistry by Weike Wang

The Blurb

At first glance, the quirky, overworked narrator of Weike Wang’s debut novel seems to be on the cusp of a perfect life: she is studying for a prestigious PhD in chemistry that will make her Chinese parents proud (or at least satisfied), and her successful, supportive boyfriend has just proposed to her.

But instead of feeling hopeful, she is wracked with ambivalence: the long, demanding hours at the lab have created an exquisite pressure cooker, and she doesn’t know how to answer the marriage question.

When it all becomes too much and her life plan veers off course, she finds herself on a new path of discoveries about everything she thought she knew. Smart, moving, and always funny, this unique coming-of-age story is certain to evoke a winning reaction.

Why read this?

Chemistry focuses on internal pressure rather than external wealth, but it shares many of the same themes as Crazy Rich Asians.

The book follows an unnamed narrator as she tries to navigate adult life, relationships and family expectations. All she’s ever known are the things you can learn from a textbook, and this has earned her the approval of her demanding Asian parents.

But now she’s got to deal with a marriage proposal, her failed research and life’s challenges, which cannot be solved with the help of a textbook.  

If you connected with the pressure Rachel feels to be “good enough”, this book explores that same tension in a quieter, more intimate way.

Chemistry is available from: Amazon

Soy Sauce For Beginners by Kirstin Chen

The Blurb

Gretchen Lin, adrift at the age of thirty, leaves her floundering marriage in San Francisco to move back to her childhood home in Singapore and immediately finds herself face-to-face with the twin headaches she’s avoided her entire adult life: her mother’s drinking problem and the machinations of her father’s artisanal soy sauce business.
 
Surrounded by family, Gretchen struggles with the tension between personal ambition and filial duty, but still finds time to explore a new romance with the son of a client, an attractive man of few words. When an old American friend comes to town, the two of them are pulled into the controversy surrounding Gretchen’s cousin, the only male grandchild and the heir apparent to Lin’s Soy Sauce.

In the midst of increasing pressure from her father to remain permanently in Singapore—and pressure from her mother to do just the opposite—Gretchen must decide whether she will return to her marriage and her graduate studies at the San Francisco Conservatory, or sacrifice everything and join her family’s crusade to spread artisanal soy sauce to the world.
 
Soy Sauce for Beginners reveals the triumphs and sacrifices that shape one woman’s search for a place to call home, and the unexpected art and tradition behind the brewing of a much-used but unsung condiment. The result is a foodie love story that will give readers a hearty appreciation for family loyalty and fresh starts.

Why read this?

Soy Sauce for Beginners is another story that takes us from America back to Singapore but Gretchen Lin’s version of Singapore couldn’t be more different from Nick Young’s.

She isn’t wealthy and doesn’t come from an elite family, but she faces the same conflict between personal ambition and filial duty. The push and pull between staying and leaving sits at the heart of the novel.

Whilst her father wishes for her to remain in Singapore to take care of the family business, her mother wants her to do the opposite and return to her marriage and studies in San Francisco. 

If you loved the family dynamics in Crazy Rich Asians more than the luxury, this is a warm, thoughtful follow-up read.

Soy Sauce for Beginners is available from: Amazon

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid

The Blurb

This book is a self-help book. Its objective, as it says on the cover, is to show you how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. And to do that it has to find you, huddled, shivering, on the packed earth under your mother’s cot one cold, dewy morning.

Your anguish is the anguish of a boy whose chocolate has been thrown away, whose remote controls are out of batteries, whose scooter is busted, whose new sneakers have been stolen. This is all the more remarkable since you’ve never in your life seen any of these things . . .

Why read this?

If you’re wondering what to read after Crazy Rich Asians, then how about this story about how to achieve those riches in the first place?

How to Get Rich in Rising Asia is a sort of rags-to-riches story as a rural boy with no money to his name becomes a business tycoon.

The protagonist is nameless, but he represents the ambitious youths growing up in rising Asia, desperate to take advantage of the fast growth and sudden influx of money in business.

Whilst Nick Young’s family come from old money, the majority of Asia is only just starting to experience what it’s like to have serious amounts of money. 

If you enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians but want a deeper understanding of the world that produces that kind of wealth, this is a clever and thought-provoking choice.

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is available on: Amazon

So here are my 17 top recommendations for what to read if you loved Crazy Rich Asians!

These are all books like Crazy Rich Asians in some way or another in terms of theme, writing, or setting. Happy reading! 

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