James Clavell's Asian Saga has tantalized America with its mixture of soap opera, action, and history for decades now. It mainly concerns itself with the lives of British and American expats and exiles living in Japan, Singapore, and other locales far from England. Its central characters are members of the Struan family, whose male descendants become tai-pans, or powerful traders and businesspeople who work and live in places like Hong Kong, and even, eventually, Iran.

Unlike the successful but difficult to find original TV miniseries version of "Shōgun," Clavell's novels can be heavily academic in nature. They delve deep into Japanese and Hong Kong history to point out the horrors of racism, imperialism, colonialism, and xenophobia. Yet they're also soap operas, touched by personal drama

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