the East and Southeast Asian region - now more commonly known as the Asia-Pacific. Another Kind of Paradise provides and illuminating introduction to the unexpected literary marvels of this crucible region. As political and economic events in China, Burma, Korea, Bali, Thailand, and Japan insistently remind us, the Asia-Pacific is a world in which many dramas affecting the world are played out on a daily basis. And as East and Southeast Asia's traditional Confucian, Buddhist, and Islamic cultures continue to engage with the unstoppable challenges of globalization, ideas and events that were unthinkable a decade ago - individual yearnings of every caliber - are now at the heart of its literary agenda. As front-line witnesses, writers from the Asia-Pacific document these social, political, and economic changes through their stories. The results are compelling, fascinating reading - from generational portraits of an emerging "slacker" youth culture to tales representing progressive views of marriage, divorce, emigrations, feminism, and gay issues. Yet Asia's old ghosts linger too, and clashes between urban and rural values and memories of painful history are never far off - all shadowed by the relentless advance of imported consumer culture from the West.

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