Liz_M Reads Around the World

70 of 193 countries of the United Nations.
Create your own travel map .

I have always loved lists and checking items off of them. For years I've been collection lists of books and reading from them to broaden my horizons. The 1001 Books to Read list and 500 Books By Women are the primary source of international fiction I've read over the past 15 years. More recently, I have been participating in Litsy's #ReadingEurope2020, #ReadingAsia2021, and #ReadingAfrica2022 challenges.

In order to qualify for a country, a work of fiction must meet two of the following criteria:
1) Author was born in the country (B)
2) Author's citizenship/nationality is of the country or has +20 years residence in the country (C)
3) The book is set in the country (S)

Resources

The Complete review:
https://www.complete-review.com/maindex/maindex.html#nat

Ann Morgan's year of reading the world:
https://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/thelist/

Book Riot:
https://bookriot.com/books-around-the-world/

LT Tagmash:
https://www.librarything.com/tag/Gambia,+fiction

Africa's 100 best books
https://www.ascleiden.nl/content/webdossiers/africas-100-best-books-20th-century

EU Prize for Literature:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Prize_for_Literature#Winners

NORTHERN AFRICA



Algeria
1. The Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Djaout (B, C)
2.
3.
4.
5.

Egypt
1. Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz (B, C, S)
2. Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi (B, C, S)
3. The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz (B, C, ~S)
4.
5.

Libya
1.
2.
3.

Mauritania
1.
2.
3.

Morocco
1.
2.
3.

Sudan
1. Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih (B, C, ~S)
2.
3.

Tunisia
1.
2.
3.

WESTERN AFRICA



Benin
1.
2.
3.

Burkina Faso
1.
2.
3.

Cape Verde
1.
2.
3.

Côte d’Ivoire
1.
2.
3.

Gambia
1.
2.
3.

Ghana
1. Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo (B, C, S)
2.
3.

Guinea
1. The Dark Child by Camara Laye (B, ~C, S)
2.
3.

Guinea-Bissau
1.
2.
3.

Liberia
1.
2.
3.

Mali
1.
2.
3.

Niger
1.
2.
3.

Nigeria
1. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (B, ~C, S)
2. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (B, ~C, S)
3. The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi (B, C, S)
4. People of the City by Cyprian Ekwensi

Senegal
1. God's Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembene (B, C, S)
2.
3.

Sierra Leone
1.
2.
3.

Togo
1.
2.
3.

CENTRAL AFRICA



Angola
1.
2.
3.

Burundi
1.
2.
3.

Cameroon
1.
2.
3.

Central African Repubic
1.
2.
3.

Chad
1.
2.
3.

Congo, Republic of
1.
2.
3.

Democratic Republic of the Congo
1.
2.
3.

Equatorial Guinea
1.
2.
3.

Gabon
1.
2.
3.

Rwanda
1. Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga (B, ~C, S)
2.
3.

Sao Tome and Principe
1.
2.
3.

EASTERN AFRICA



Comoros
1.
2.
3.

Djibouti
1. Passage of Tears by Abdourahman A. Waberi (B, ~C, S)
2.
3.

Eritrea
1.
2.
3.

Ethiopia
1. The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste (B, S)
2.
3.

Kenya
1. The River Between by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (B, C, S)
2.
3.

Madagascar
1.
2.
3.

Malawi
1.
2.
3.

Mauritius
1. The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah (B, C, S)
2.
3.

Mozambique
1.
2.
3.

Seychelles
1.
2.
3.

Somalia
1.
2.
3.

South Sudan
1.
2.
3.

Tanzania
1.
2.
3.

Uganda
1. Waiting: A Novel of Uganda's Hidden War by Goretti Kyomuhendo (B, C, S)
2. Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (B, C, S)
3.

Zambia
1. The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell (B, ~C, S)
2.
3.

Zimbabwe
1. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (B, C, S)
2.
3.

SOUTHERN AFRICA



Botswana
1. A Question of Power by Bessie Head (C, S)
2.
3.

Eswatini (Swaziland)
1.
2.
3.

Lesotho
1. Chaka by Thomas Mofolo (B, ~C, ~S)
2.
3.

Namibia
1.
2.
3.

South Africa
1. A Dry White Season by André Brink (B, C, S)
2. July's People by Nadine Gordimer (B, C, S)
3. Ancestral Voices by Etienne van Heerden (B, C, S)
4. Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee (B, ~C, S)
5. The Expedition to the Baobab Tree by Wilma Stockenstrom (B, C, S)

NORTH AMERICA



Canada
1. Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro (B, C, S?)
2. The First Garden by Anne Hébert (B, C, S)
3. Fifth Business by Robertson Davies (B, C)
4. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (B, C)
5. The Diviners by Margaret Laurence (B, C, S)
6. Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice (B, C, S)

United States of America
1. U.S.A. by John Dos Passos (B, C, S)
2. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (B, C, S)
3. Moby-Dick, or, The Whale by Herman Melville (B, C)
4. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (B, C, S)
5. Passing by Nella Larsen (B, C, S)
6. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

CARIBBEAN



Antigua and Barbuda
1. A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid (B, ~C, S)
2.
3.

Bahamas
1.
2.
3.

Barbados
1. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones (B, C, S)
2.
3.

Cuba
1. Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez (B, C, S)
2. Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas (B, C, S)
3. Three Trapped Tigers by Guillermo Cabrera Infante (B, C, S)
4. Havana Year Zero by Karla Suárez (B, C, S)

Dominica
1.
2.
3.

Dominican Republic
1. Tentacle by Rita Indiana (B, C, ~S)
2.
3.

Grenada
1.
2.
3.

Haiti
1.
2.
3.

Jamaica
1. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (B, ~C, ~S)
2.
3.

Saint Kitts and Nevis
1.
2.
3.

Saint Lucia
1.
2.
3.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
1.
2.
3.

Trinidad and Tobago
1.
2.
3.

CENTRAL AMERICA



Belize
1. Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell (B, ~C, S)
2.
3.

Costa Rica
1. Flowering Inferno: Tales of Sinking Hearts by Rima De Vallbona (B, C, S?)
2.
3.

El Salvador
1. The She-Devil in the Mirror by Horacio Castellanos (C, S)
2.
3.

Guatemala
1. Knitting the Fog by Claudia D. Hernández (B, ~C, ~S)
2. Human Matter: A Fiction by Rodrigo Rey Rosa (B, C, S)
3.

Honduras
1.
2.
3.

Mexico
1. In Search of Klingsor by Jorge Volpi (B, C)
2. Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo (B, C, S)
3. The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela (B, C, S)
4. The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz (B, C, S)
5. Como Agua para Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (B, C, S)

Nicaragua
1.
2.
3.

Panama
1. Duplications and Other Stories by Enrique Jaramillo Levi (B, C, S?)
2.
3.

SOUTH AMERICA



Argentina
1. Include Me Out by María Sonia Cristoff (B, C, S)
2. Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (B, C, S?)
3. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (B, C)
4. Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig (B, C, S)
5. The Witness by Juan José Saer (B, C)

Bolivia
1.
2.
3.

Brazil
1. With My Dog Eyes by Hilda Hilst (B, C, S?)
2. The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector (C, S)
3. The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by João Guimarães Rosa (B, C, S)
4. Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis (B, C, S?)
5. Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado (B, C, S)

Chile
1. The Captain's Verses by Pablo Neruda (B, C)
2. Navidad & Matanza by Carlos Labbé (B, C, S)
3.

Colombia
1. The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez (B, C)
2. Our Lady of the Assassins by Fernando Vallejo (B, ~C, S)
3. The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis (B, C)
4. Salt Crystals by Cristina Bendek (B, ~C, S)

Ecuador
1. Cockfight by María Fernanda Ampuero (B, C, S?)
2. Blood Red Gabriela Ponce Padilla (B, C, S)
3.

Guyana
1.
2.
3.

Paraguay
1.
2.
3.

Peru
1. A World for Julius by Alfredo Bryce Echenique (B, C, S)
2. The Time of the Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa (B, ~C, S)
3. Deep Rivers by José María Arguedas (B, C, S)
4. Ice for Martians by Claudia Ulloa Donoso (B, C, S)

Suriname
1.
2.
3.

Uruguay
1. The Shipyard by Juan Carlos Onetti (B, C, S?)
2. Memory of Fire by Eduardo Galeano (B, C)
3. Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis (S)

Venezuela
1. Sacrifices by Rodrigo Blanco Calderon (B, C)
2.
3.

NORTH AND CENTRAL ASIA

.

Armenia
1.
2.
3.

Azerbaijan
1.
2.
3.

Georgia
1. The Eighth Life (for Brilka) by Nino Haratischwili (B, ~C, ~S)
2.
3.

Kazakhstan
1.
2.
3.

Kyrgyzstan
1.
2.
3.

Russia (Siberia)
1.
2.
3.

Tajikistan
1.
2.
3.

Turkmenistan
1.
2.
3.

Uzbekistan
1.
2.
3.

WESTERN ASIA



Bahrain
1.
2.
3.

Iran
1. The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar (B, ~C, S)
2.
3.

Iraq
1. Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi (B, C, S)
2.
3.

Israel
1. Khirbet Khizeh by S. Yizhar (B, C, S?)
2. Limassol by Yishai Sarid (B, C, S)
3. Judas by Amos Oz (B, C, S)

Jordan
1.
2.
3.

Kuwait
1.
2.
3.

Lebanon
1.
2.
3.

Oman
1. Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi (B, C, S)
2.
3.

Palestine
1. Minor Detail by Adania Shibli (B, C, ~S)
2.
3.

Qatar
1.
2.
3.

Saudi Arabia
1.
2.
3.

Syria
1. Death Is Hard Work by Khālid Khalīfah (B, C, S)
2. The Silence and the Roar by Nihad Sirees (B, C)
3.

Turkey
1. Life Is a Caravanserai by Emine Sevgi Ozdamar (B, ~C, S)
2. Snow by Orhan Pamuk (B, C, S)
3.

United Arab Emirates
1. The Diesel by Thani Al-Suwaidi (B, C? S?)
2.
3.

Yemen
1.
2.
3.

SOTHERN ASIA



Afghanistan
1. Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi (B, ~C, S)
2.
3.

Bangladesh
1.
2.
3.

Bhutan
1.
2.
3.

India
1. The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore (B, C)
2. Small Remedies by Shashi Deshpande (B, C, S)
3. The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor (C, S)
4. Animal's People by Indra Sinha (B, S)
5. Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand (B, C, S)

Maldives
1.
2.
3.

Nepal
1.
2.
3.

Pakistan
1. Basti by Intizar Husain (B, C, S?)
2.
3.

Sri Lanka
1. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (B, ~C, S)
2.
3.

EASTERN ASIA



China
1. The Three Kingdoms by Guanzhong Luo (B, C, S)
2. Leaden Wings by by Zhang Jie (B, C, S)
3. The Invisibility Cloak by Ge Fei (B, C, S)
4. The Water Margin by Shi Nai'An (B, C, S?)
5. The Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin (B, C, S?)

Japan
1. Revenge by Yoko Ogawa (B, C, S)
2. All She Was Worth by Miyuki Miyabe (B, C, S)
3. The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (B?, C, S)
4. Silence by Shūsaku Endō (B, C, S)
5. Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburō Ōe (B, C, S)

Mongolia
1.
2.
3.

North Korea - DPRK
1. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
2.
3.

South Korea - ROK
1. Untold Night and Day by Bae Suah (B?, C, S)
2. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo (B, C, S)
3. The Vegetarian by Han Kang (B, C, S)

Taiwan
1. Notes of a Crocodile by Miaojin Qiu (B, C, S)
2.
3.

SOUTHEAST ASIA



Brunei Darussalam
1.
2.
3.

Cambodia
1. In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
2.
3.

Indonesia
1. The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermoût
2.
3.

Laos
1.
2.
3.

Malaysia
1. The Age of Goodbyes by Li Zi Shu (B, C?, S)
2.
3.

Myanmar
1.
2.
3.

Philippines
1. Ulirát by various, pub. 2021 (B and/or C, S)
2.
3.

Singapore
1. The Scent of the Gods by Fiona Cheong (B, S)
2.
3.

Thailand
1.
2.
3.

Timor-Leste
1.
2.
3.

Viet Nam
1. Memories of a Pure Spring by Dương Thu Hương
2.
3.

NORTHERN EUROPE



Denmark
1. Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg (B, C, S)
2. The Employees by Olga Ravn (B, C)
3. Last Night in Nuuk by Niviaq Korneliussen

Finland
1. Fair Play by Tove Jansson (B, C, S)
2. The Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna (B, C, ~S)
3. The Manila Rope by Veijo Meri (C, S)

Iceland
1. Independent People by Halldór Laxness (B, C, S)
2. Snare by Lilja Sigurdardottir (B, C, S)
3.

Norway
1. Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel (B, C, S)
2. Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun (B, C, S)
3. The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas
4. The House with the Blind Glass Windows by Herbjørg Wassmo
5. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (C, S)

Sweden
1. By the Open Sea by August Strindberg (B, C, S)
2. The Christmas Oratorio by Göran Tunström (B, C, S)
3. Winter Grave by Helene Tursten (B, C, S)
4. Gösta Berling's Saga by Selma Lagerlöf (B, C, S)
5. Barabbas by Pär Lagerkvist (B, C)

WESTERN EUROPE



Andorra
1.
2.
3.

Austria
1. The Afternoon of a Writer by Peter Handke (B, C, S?)
2. Young Törless by Robert Musil (B, C, S)
3. Lieutenant Gustl by Arthur Schnitzler (B, C, S)

Belgium
1. Cheese by Willem Elsschot (B, C)
2.
3.

France
1. Free Day by Ines Cagnati (B, ~C, S)
2. Jealousy by Alain Robbe-Grillet (B, C)
3. Time Regained by Marcel Proust (B, C, S)
4. Germinal by Émile Zola (B, C, S)
5. Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau (B, C)

Germany
1. Life of a Good-for-Nothing by Joseph von Eichendorff (B, C)
2. The Swarm by Frank Schätzing (B, C)
3. The Pigeon by Patrick Süskind (B, C, S)
4. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Böll (B, C, S)
5. Pavel's Letters by Monika Maron (B, C, S)

Ireland
1. The Charwoman's Daughter by James Stephens (B, C, S)
2. Ulysses by James Joyce (B, C, S)
3. The Táin by Anonymous (B, C, S)
4. The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien (B, C, S)
5. At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill (B, C, S)
6. In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu (B, C)

Liechtenstein
1.
2.
3.

Luxembourg
1.
2.
3.

Monaco
1.
2.
3.

Netherlands
1. The Garden Where the Brass Band Played by Simon Vestdijk (B, C, S)
2. Rituals by Cees Nooteboom (B, C)
3. Eline Vere by Louis Couperus (B, C, S)

Switzerland
1. Homo Faber by Max Frisch (B, C)
2. Julie; or, The new Eloise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (B, C, S)
3.

United Kingdom
1. The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns (B, C, S)
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (B, C, S)
3. Pilgrimage by Dorothy M. Richardson (B, C, ~S)
4. Orlando by Virginia Woolf (B, C, ~S)
5. How Late it Was, How Late by James Kelman (B, C, S)

CENTRAL EUROPE



Albania
1. The Successor by Ismail Kadare (B, C, S)
2.
3.

Bosnia and Herzegovina
1. Bosnian Chronicle by Ivo Andrić (B, ~C, S)
2.
3.

Bulgaria
1. Under the Yoke by Ivan Vazov (B, C, S)
2. A Ballad for Georg Henig by Victor Paskow (B, C, S)
3.

Croatia
1. S.: A Novel about the Balkans by Slavenka Drakulic (B, C)
2. The Museum of Unconditional Surrender by Dubravka Ugrešić (B, C)
3.

Czech Republic
1. War with the Newts by Karel Čapek (B, C)
2. Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light by Ivan Klima (B, C, S)
3. Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal (B, C, S)

Hungary
1. Iza's Ballad by Magda Szabó (B, C, S)
2. The Case Worker by George Konrad (B, C, S)
3. Celestial Harmonies by Péter Esterházy (B, C, S)
4. Eclipse of the Crescent Moon by Géza Gárdonyi (B, C, S)

Montenegro
1.
2.
3.

North Macedonia
1.
2.
3.

Poland
1. The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer (B, ~C, S)
2. Ashes and Diamonds by Jerzy Andrzejewski (B, C, S)
3. The Beautiful Mrs Seidenman by Andrzej Szczypiorski (B, C, S)
4. The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz (~B, C, ~S)
5. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (B, C, S)

Romania
1. Forest Of The Hanged by Liviu Rebreanu (B, C)
2.
3.

Serbia
1.
2.
3.

Slovakia
1.
2.
3.

Slovenia
1.
2.
3.

EASTERN EUROPE



Belarus
1.
2.
3.

Estonia
1. Professor Martens' Departure by Jaan Kross (B, C)
2.
3.

Latvia
1.
2.
3.

Lithuania
1.
2.
3.

Republic of Moldova
1.
2.
3.

Russia (west)
1. The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya (B, C, ~S)
2. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (B, C, S)
3. Buddha's Little Finger by Viktor Pelevin (B, C, S?)
4. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (B, C)

Ukraine
1. Cataract by Mykhaylo Osadchy (B, C)
2. Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov (C, S)
3.

SOUTHERN EUROPE



Cyprus
1.
2.
3.

Greece
1. Astradeni by Eugenia Fakinou (C, S)
2. Z by Vassilis Vassilikos (B, C, S)
3. Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis (B, C, S)
4. Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides (B, C, S?)
5. The Daughter by Pavlos Matesis (B, C, S)

Italy
1. One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand by Luigi Pirandello (B, C)
2. I'm Not Scared by Niccolò Ammaniti (B, C, S)
3. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (B, C, S)
4. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani (B, C, S)
5. To Each His Own by Leonardo Sciascia (B, C, S)

Malta
1.
2.
3

Portugal
1. All the Names by José Saramago (B, C, ~S)
2. The Lusiads by Luís Vaz de Camões (B, C)
3. The Crime of Father Amaro by José Maria Eça de Queirós (B, C, S)
4. The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa (B, C, S)
5.

San Marino
1.
2.
3

Spain
1. Platero and I by Juan Ramón Jiménez (B, C, S)
2. Your Face Tomorrow: Dance and Dream (Vol. 2) by Javier Marías (B, C)
3. Pepita Jimenez by Juan Valera (B, C, S)
4. Solitude by Víctor Català (B, C, S)
5. Obabakoak by Bernardo Atxaga

MICRONESIA



Kiribati
1.
2.
3.

Marshall Islands
1.
2.
3

Micronesia
1.
2.
3.

Nauru
1.
2.
3

Palau
1.
2.
3.

MELANESIA



Fiji
1.
2.
3.

Papua New Guinea
1.
2.
3.

Solomon Islands
1.
2.
3.

Vanuatu
1.
2.
3.

AUSTRALASIA



Australia
1. That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott (B, C, S)
2. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (B, C, S)
3. The Commandant by Jessica Anderson (B, C, S)
4. Remembering Babylon by David Malouf (B, C, S)
5. The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead (B, C, ~S?)
6. Born Into This by Adam Thompson (B, C, S)

New Zealand
1. Faces in the Water by Janet Frame (B, C, S)
2. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (C, S)
3.

POLYNESIA



Samoa
1.
2.
3.

Tonga
1.
2.
3.

Tuvalu
1.
2.
3.

spare

Welcome to the Global Challenge!

I like how you organized your list by region. How did you decide which countries to include? For example, I see Georgia, which is one I have been considering adding although it's not on the commonly used UN list of member nations.

Visitors!

>27 Jackie_K: Hello and thank you!

>28 labfs39: Thanks for the inspiration to put a global challenge in one place rather than scattered over several years worth of spreadsheets/journals! Since I have been participating in yearly Continent reading challenges, it made sense to me to organize by continent and then into regions since I'd need several posts per continent.

My country list was mostly from Wikipedia -- generally following the United Nations geoscheme, with some exceptions in Europe (I liked Eurovac's placement of the UK/ Ireland in Western Europe rather than Northern Europe) and splitting Central Europe into Central and Eastern Europe.

Georgia is included as a member-state on the United Nation's website, btw:
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/member-states#gotoG

>29 ELiz_M: Ha! And so it is. I am debating Tibet and Chechnya though. I guess it's my list, so why not?

I love your regional maps. Where did you find them?

>30 labfs39: why not indeed!

>31 labfs39: all stolen borrowed from wikipedia.

Lol. They are nice focal spots and break up the list nicely, as well as being useful.

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner, pub. 2012
Finished 17-Dec-2021
Cambodia (B, S)



While the events are real enough and based on her childhood experiences, the writing is a touch melodramatic.

Notes of a Crocodile by Miaojin Qiu, pub. 1994
Finished 19-Dec-2021
Taiwan (B, C, S)



Unconventionally structured coming of age of a Taiwanese lesbian.

The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermoût, pub. 1955
Finished 23-Dec-2021
Indonesia (B, ~C, S)



Dreamlike interwoven stories set on the Dutch colony in the spice islands.

>34 ELiz_M: Sorry you didn't enjoy In the Shadow of the Banyan more. I loved it. Interesting NYRB titles.

The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz, pub. 2012
Finished 11-Jan-2022
Egypt (B, C, ~S)



The atmosphere of this novel was based on post-Arab Spring Egypt. An intriguing, if not compelling read

Ulirát: Best Contemporary Stories in Translation from the Philippines by various, pub. 2021
Finished 17-Jan-2021
Philippines (B and/or C, S)



Too many stories to summarize here. Some felt very much written from a different culture, with unfamiliar structures and rhythm. I picked up the book at Singapore Unbound's table at the Brooklyn Book Festival.

Passage of Tears by Abdourahman A. Waberi, pub. 2009
Finished 22-Jan-2022
Djibouti (B, ~C, S)



A multilayered story told through three different texts. Overall, I found it to be intellectually interesting but emotionally flat and bereft of tension.

>40 ELiz_M: I'm impressed you found a book for Djibouti though! :)

>41 Jackie_K: There is a bookstore in NYC that arranges fiction geographically and I spent an hour going through the Africa shelves. 😁

>42 ELiz_M: Great trick!

The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah, pub. 2007
Finished 5-Feb-2022
Mauritius (B, C, S)



In the 1940s, after an unspeakable tragedy Raj's family moves to a larger town where his father finds work in a curious prison camp and Raj befriends a young Jewish inmate.

Waiting: A Novel of Uganda's Hidden War by Goretti Kyomuhendo, pub. 2007
Finished 17-Feb-2022
Mauritius (B, C, S)



The devastation of Idi Amin's brutal wars is shown through the lens of it's effect on one family in a remote Ugandan village.

>44 ELiz_M: I loved The Last Brother. This is a good reminder that I should look for other books by her.

The Daughter by Pavlos Matesis, pub. 1990
Finished 16-Mar-2022
Greece (B, C, S)



The interior monologue of a delusional actress, born in rural poverty, with grandiose and gritty descriptions of her life in post WWII Greece.

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi, pub. 2020
Finished 23-Mar-2022
Nigeria (B, C, S)



Beginning with a death, Vivek's deeply effecting story is told by family and friends, with how transforming into who and why.

The Expedition to the Baobab Tree by Wilma Stockenstrom, pub. 1981
Finished 11-Apr-2022
South Africa (B, C, S)



Left on her own in a remote wildness of South Africa, a woman reflects on a life of slavery as she learns how to survive.

Havana Year Zero by Karla Suárez, pub. 2011
Finished 22-Apr-2022
Cuba (B, C, S)



Cuba is at it's economically worst point and Julia is drawn into a web of stories and half truths about a lost scientific document that it seems everyone she meets wants to rediscover in order to provide for their salvation.

The Wedding of Zein: and Other Stories by Tayeb Salih, pub. 1969
Finished 11-May-2022
Sudan (B, C, S)



The villagers in a small town are shocked to learn of Zein's impending wedding and take turns telling stories about the fool Zein as they try to puzzle out this turn of events.

Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi, pub. 2000
Finished 15-May-2022
Afghanistan (B, ~C, S)



A grandfather and his grandson wait for a ride at the side of a dusty road, slowly reliving and revealing the horrific events that he must convey to his son.

Wow, you've been all over the world recently!

>53 Jackie_K: :D well "recently" is the last three months....

>49 ELiz_M: The Expedition to the Baobab Tree sounds like something I would like. Noting.

>51 ELiz_M: If you liked The Wedding of Zein, you might try his Season of Migration to the North, if you haven't already. I liked it even more.

>52 ELiz_M: I just finished Rahimi's The Patience Stone yesterday. Did you like Earth and Ashes? I'm tempted to try another one of his books.

I think I'm going to implement your BCS categories to my list as well. It should help me with my "where does this book go" dilemmas.

Obabakoak by Bernardo Atxaga, pub. 1989
Finished 1-Jun-2022
Spain (B, C, S)



Atxaga's stories are richly detailed and meandering, feeling as if as if they are from an older era, with endings that have a surprising or awful twist.

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, pub. 2018
Finished 1-Jun-2022
Canada (B, C, S)



A wonderfully concise telling of the fracturing and disintegration of an Anishinaabe community in Northern Ontario after the collapse of "civilization" in the south.

>57 ELiz_M: I enjoyed reading Moon of the Crusted Snow last year, and I hear he's working on a sequel.

People of the City by Cyprian Ekwensi, pub. 1954
Finished 3-Jun-2022
Nigeria (B, C, S)



Throughout a slow downfall, Amusa remains upbeat, hustling, while the author delights in offering glimpses into the lives of a multitude of city dwellers. Although the pacing is uneven and many characters don’t have much character, it is overall a good read.

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell, pub. 2019
Finished 13-Jul-2022
Zambia (B, ~C, S)



A multi-generational saga of three intertwined families. There are some fantastical elements that I wished were more integral.

The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis, pub. 1993
Finished 18-Jul-2022
Colombia (B, C)



A collection of novellas about the never-do-well sailor Maqroll and his resigned acceptance of the hard work put into schemes that fail to make him rich.

The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste, pub. 2020
Finished 25-Jul-2022
Ethiopia (B, S)



Unfortunately, I didn't review this and now barely remember it.

Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga, pub. 2012
Finished 19-Oct-2022
Rwanda (B, ~C, S)



Set in an elite girls Catholic boarding school high in the Rwandan mountains, it is a fable-like foretelling of what is to come. Each chapter focuses on a different girl, depicting a small aspect of their life.

Last Night in Nuuk by Niviaq Korneliussen, pub. 2014
Finished 6-Dec-2022
Denmark/Greenland (B, C, S)



Five friends, each narrating a chapter, deal with the aftermath of coming to terms with their sexuality and relationships.

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, pub. 2022
Finished 18-Dec-2022
Sri Lanka (B, ~C, S)



Dead war photographer Maali has very little time in the afterlife in which to discover who killed him and to lead his lover and his best friend to his hidden politically explosive photographs that he hopes will change Sri Lanka.

The She-Devil in the Mirror by Horacio Castellanos Moya, pub. 2000
Finished 19-Jan-2023
El Salvador (C, S)



A brilliantly-executed monologue voiced by the murder victim's self-absorbed friend.

Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, pub. 2014
Finished 3-Feb-2023
Uganda (B, C, S)



The descendants of a legendary provincial governor, Kintu, gather to perform ceremonies designed to lift a centuries-old curse on their lineage.

Celestial Harmonies by Péter Esterházy, pub. 2000
Finished 7-Feb-2023
Hungary (B, C, S)



A dense two-part book - the firt section is numbered sentences spanning hundreds of years of incidents in Hungarian history and the second section an almost conventional family saga.

Tentacle by Rita Indiana, pub. 2015
Finished 11-Feb-2023
Dominican Republic (B, C, ~S)



A multi-stranded story of trans person in an apocalyptic near-future working to fulfill a Santana prophecy, inhibiting bodies in the past in an attempt to change their present.

The Silence and the Roar by Nihad Sirees
Finished 6-Mar-2023
Syria (B, C)



On the day of the dictator's celebration of his 20th year of rule, the narrator, an author that refused to publish propaganda, caught up in street demonstration has his papers taken and is told to report to the police resulting in increasingly Kafkaesque bureaucracy.

Bright by Duanwad Pimwana
Finished 18-Apr-2023
Thailand (B, C, S)



Vignettes about a young boy abandoned by his family and raised by the members of the poor community.

Salt Crystals by Cristina Bendek
Finished 4-May-2023
Colombia (B, ~C, S)



A woman struggling to manage her recently diagnosed diabetes returns to her childhood home and prompted by a old photograph searches for her family history and it's connections to the island's history.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Finished 15-Jun-2023
Poland (B, C, S)



An eccentric caretaker of summer houses and animal rights activist tries to convince the community that the death's of various hunters were caused by animals.

The Restless by Gerty Dambury
Finished 19-Jun-2023
Guadalupe, a French overseas region (B, ~C, S)



Structured after a Creole quadrille, narrated by ghosts and a chorus composed of the main character's siblings young Emilienne is hoping to understand the disappearance of her beloved teacher days before the worker riots of 1967.

You take the goal of around the world seriously. You've been doing some serious globetrotting!

I'm going to leave this here a while, until I eventually get around to posting the last three months of reads.....

I attended my favorite event of the year today -- the Brooklyn Book Festival. There is a literary marketplace with hundreds of booths manned by various independent publishers. I use the event to discover and stock up on translated literature.

Archipelago Books:
Newcomers: Book Two by Lojze Kovacic (Slovenia?)
The Last Pomegranate Tree* by Bachtyar Ali (Iraq?)
The Storm by Tomás González (Colombia?)

Catapult Books / Counterpoint Press / Soft Skull Press:
These letters end in tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere (Camaroon?)
The coin by Yasmin Zahra (Palestine?)

Deep Vellum:
Fem* by Magda Cârneci (Romania?)
Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila (Democratic Republic of the Congo?)

Europa Editions:
All Your Children Scattered by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse (Rwanda?)
Disoriental by Négar Djavadi (Iran?)
Opium and Other Stories* by Géza Csáth (Serbia?)

The Feminist Press:
Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu (Indonesia?)
Sweetlust by Asja Bakić (Bosnia and Herzegovina?)
Women Without Men* by Shahrnush Parsipur (Iran?)

Gaudy Boy:
Amanat: Women’s Writing from Kazakhstan*
The Infinite Library and Other Stories by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo (Philippines?)
Picking off new shoots will not stop the spring: Witness poems and essays from Burma/Myanmar

Graywolf Press:
If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga (Egypt?)
Voyager: Constellations of Memory by Nona Fernández (Chile?)

New Directions:
Battle Songs by Daša Drndić (Croatia?)
The Employees by Olga Ravn (Denmark?)
War Diary by Yevgenia Belorusets (Ukraine?)
You Glow in the Dark by Liliana Colanzi (Bolivia?)

New Vessel Press:
Allmen and the Dragonflies by Martin Suter (Switzerland?)
The Good Life Elsewhere* by Vladimir Lorchenkov (Moldova?)
Moving the Palace by Charif Majdalani (Lebanon?)
Who Is Martha? by Marjana Gaponenko (Austria?)

Restless Books:
Blood Red* by Gabriela Ponce (Ecuador?)
The Body Papers by Grace Talusan (Philippines?)
Catch the Rabbit by Lana Bastašić (Croatia?)
Checkpoint by David Albahari (Serbia?)
Land of Love and Ruins by Oddný Eir (Iceland?)
Nine Moons by Gabriela Wiener (Peru?)
Silence of the Chagos by Shenaz Patel (Mauritius?)
Temporary People* by Deepak Unnikrishnan (United Arab Emirates? India?)
The Underground by Hamid Ismailov (Uzbekistan?)

Seven Stories Press:
The Censor's Notebook by Liliana Corobca (Romania? Moldova?)
Sacrifices by Rodrigo Blanco Calderon (Venezuela?)

Transit Books:
Cold Nights of Childhood by Tezer Özlü (Turkey?)
Mansour's Eyes by Ryad Girod (Algeria? Saudi Arabia?)
Swallowing Mercury* by Wioletta Greg (Poland?)

Two Lines Press:
Elektrik by various (Caribbean?)
Cuíer Queer Brazil by various
Home New Arabic Poems by various
No Edges Swahili Stories by various
Lake Like a Mirror* by Ho Sok Fong (Malaysia?)
A Spare Life by Lidija Dimkovska (Macedonia?)

World Editions:
Abyss by Pilar Quintana (Colombia?)
The Disoriented by Amin Maalouf (Lebanon?)
Planet of Clay* by Samar Yazbek (Syria?)
This World Does Not Belong to Us by Natalia García Freire (Ecuador?)

>76 ELiz_M: Oh my, I'm drooling all over the keyboard...

Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis
Finished 4-Jul-2023
Uruguay (S)



Told over 35 years under a brutal regime, five lesbians carve out a place of refuge in a remote cape that gives them the strength to live in the oppressive city.

Navidad & Matanza by Carlos Labbé
Finished 9-Jul-2023
Chile (B, C, S)



A confusing meta-fictional work that is layers of story-telling around the disappearance of two siblings and the many sightings of the brother over the years. It was too much meta, not enough fiction.

Duplications and Other Stories by Enrique Jaramillo Levi
Finished 12-Jul-2023
Panama (B, C, S?)



A collection of very short stories, most under five pages, grouped by themes such as duplications, simultaneities, alienations, metamorphoses, etc. Some sections worked better than others.

Eclipse of the Crescent Moon by Géza Gárdonyi
Finished 23-Jul-2023
Hungary (B, C, S)



Set in the mid-1500s, it tells the story of one of the important figures in the the Siege of Eger. The almost completely made of live of Gergely is a meandering adventure story, but the the based-on-facts story of the siege is utterly gripping.

>80 ELiz_M:
You did well getting hold of that. I found sourcing a Panamanian author in English very hard (am in UK). Finally acquired a copy of Juan David Morgan's The Golden Horse which hope to read soon, but had to send off to States for it

>82 Willoyd: I got it from the library, no less!

Born Into This by Adam Thompson
Finished 25-Jul-2023
Australia (B, C, S)



A collection of short stories featuring Aboriginal Tasmanians some are excellent some are okay.

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
Finished 29-Jul-2023
Barbados(B, C, S)



Brutal, compelling story of a young woman caught in desperate circumstances, mostly not of her making.

Flowering Inferno: Tales of Sinking Hearts by Rima De Vallbona
Finished 2-Aug-2023
Costa Rica (B, C, S?)



Poorly translated stories with some editorial oversights. Most of the the book is forgettable, except there was one perfect, haunting story of loneliness that stayed with me.

The Age of Goodbyes by Li Zi Shu
Finished 9-Oct-2023
Costa Rica (B, C?, S)



This metafictional novel had a fascinating beginning, but the longer it went on, the less interesting it became.

Julie; or, The new Eloise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Finished 26-Oct-2023
Switzerland (B, C, S)



An overwrought, but not tragic, epistolary story of star-crossed love and eventual acceptance.

Blood Red by Gabriela Ponce Padilla
Finished 17-Nov-2023
Ecuador (B, C, S)



At first, a fragmented, earthy story of a newly divorced woman's sexual experimentation after the narrator has a life-changing event the story becomes more coherent.

Sacrifices by Rodrigo Blanco Calderón
Finished 21-Nov-2023
Venezuela (B, C)



A surreal, sometimes captivating, sometime opaque, collection of stories that if I had been paying attention to I might have understood the mythological references.

The Diesel by Thani Al-Suwaidi
Finished 24-Nov-2023
United Arab Emirates (B, C?, S)



A fluid novella where one fantastical event flows into the next, not quit creating a intelligible story of the life of a transgendered person whom eventually foments a cultural revolution.

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Finished 26-Dec-2023
New Zealand (C, S)



A long, intricately plotted novel about a strange set events in a goldrush town that I read badly (most people loved it) -- I got through the climax on a flight and then it landed and it was going on midnight I was trying to get home and the narrative had broken down into fragments that didn't make any sense to me.

Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo, pub. 1991
Finished 7-Jan-2024
Ghana (B, C, S)



Not told in a “standard” western style, it is a story of women’s relationships, centered on Esi Sekyi – her first marriage to smothering husband Oko, her second polygamous marriage to Ali, and her lifelong friendship with Opokuya.

Human Matter by Rodrigo Rey Rosa, pub. 2009
Finished 5-Feb-2024
Guatemala (B, C, S)



This was a unique novel. It is a fictional work, based on real events, written in a non-fictional style.

Ice for Martians by Claudia Ulloa Donoso, pub. 2023
Finished 6-Feb-2024
Peru (B, C, S)



A collection of very short stories, all in some way inspired by "marciano" a word that can either mean popsicle or Martian. In each the characters have extra-ordinary reactions to ordinary happenings