Maybe you can help...

...I'm looking for suggestions of books that follow the growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood, preferably by authors who could be described as postcolonial.

- Examples include Midnight's Children and The God of Small Things

Any suggestions are welcome.

The Impressionist. Covers a life from birth to death - with a lot of focus on the coming of age ages - by an author who is Asian and post-colonial. (Although the action is at the end of the colonial period.) Settings from India to England and Africa, but mostly India (pre-partition so includes areas that would now be in Pakistan, I believe).

The bonus is that is an absolutely fabulous novel.

Also, one of the best novels I have ever read, A Fine Balance, recounts the life of at least one character (maybe more) from childhood and has a broad spectrum of characters. Also by a post-colonial writer. Action occurs in Indira Gandhi's India.

Thank you!

If anyone else has any suggestions then please add them as this is a long term project that I am working on.

Women of Silk and it's sequels.

Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki leaps instantly to mind. I would also like to suggest Musui's Story by Katsu Kokichi, and Confessions of a Yakuza by Junichi Saga. Hope that helps.

White Teeth?

Inheritance: A Novel by Len Samantha Chang.
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.
Chang and Eng by Darin Strauss.
The Grass Roof and East Goes West by Younghill Kang.
The Last Manchu by Henry Pu Yi.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.

All were good reads, some more literary than others.

Also thought of a few more:
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The Soong Dynasty by Sterling Seagrave
You didn't say what part of Asia, does that matter?

City of the Queen, by Shih Shu-Ching is about a girl in Guangzho who is taken to Hong Kong where she grows up, makes her way, has a family, etc.

The Painter From Shanghai, by Jennifer Cody Epstein, is fiction but is based on the life of painter Pan Yu Liang.

A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul, which is set in post-colonial Trinidad, and gives a rich description of the Indian community there.

The Buddha of Suburbia is a great coming of age novel by a Pakistani/Anglo author, but the action is all in the UK if that matters to you.