* _I, Coriander_ (1984)
* _Moonraker's Bride_ (1986)
* _The Year of the Crab_ (1987)
* _The Serpent_ (1989)
* _The Polar Bear _ (1990)
* _The Forbidden City _ (1991)
* _The Lake of Dreams _ (1992)
* _The River God's Daughter_ (1993)
* _Dragon's Child _ (1994)
* _The Year of the Horse _ (1997)
* _Daughter of the Gods_ (1999)
* _The King of the Birds _ (2001)
* _The Wolf in Winter _ (2003)
* _The White Phoenix _ (2005)
* _The Emperor's Horses _ (2007)
* _The Jade Man _ (2009)
* _The Tiger Warrior_ (2011)
* _The Serpent King _ (2013)
* _The Monkey's Mask _ (2015)
* _The House of the Peacock _ (2017)
* _The Song of the Nightingale_ (2019)
* _The Garden of the Seven Trees _ (2021)
Non-Fiction
* _From the Mountains of Hell: The History of the Chin People_ (1988)
* _The People of the Mist: The Story of the Kachin People_ (1990)
* _Under the Golden Sun: The Story of the Moken Sea Nomads_ (1995)
* _A Journey Through the Land of the Naga_ (1997)
* _The Rice Mother: A Story of Life in Laos_ (2000)
* _China's Great Famine: A History of the Mass Starvation of 1958-1962_ (2005)
* _India: A Portrait_ (2010)
* _The Last Man Standing: The Life of Deng Xiaoping_ (2013)
* _China: A New History, 1911-2011_ (2014)
* _The China File: New Secrets and Scandals_ (2015)