Around the World in 80 Books

*Updated*


1.Japan - Kafka On the Shore by Haruki Murakami

2. Russia - Demons by Dostoevsky

3. France - The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Dumas

4. England - Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

5. India - Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

6. Sweden - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

7. Canada - World of Wonders by Robertson Davies

8. Turkey - My Name Is Red by Orhand Pamuk

9. Norway - The Wife by Sigrid Undset

10. Portugal - Blindness by Jose Saramago

11. Germany - Faust by Goethe

12. Spain - The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

13. Mexico - Rasero by Francisco Rebolledo

14. New Zeland - The Bone People by Keri Hulme

15. Iran - My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad

16. Scotland - Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott

17. Iceland - Iceland's Bell by Halldor Laxness

18. Australia - Jacke Maggs by Peter Carey

19. Finland - Purge by Sofi Oksanen

*Update*
Sticking with the ladies...

1. UK - A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland
2. China - 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo
3. USA - Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
4. India - The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
5. France - Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi
6. Italy - The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante
7. Hungary - The Proof by Agota Kristof
8. Iceland - The Creator by Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir

*Update*
1. UK - A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland
2. China - 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo
3. USA - Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
4. India - The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
5. France - Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi
6. Italy - The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante
7. Hungary - The Proof by Agota Kristof
8. Iceland - The Creator by Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir
9. Finland - Travelling Light by Tove Jansson

*Update*
1. UK - A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland
2. China - 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo
3. USA - Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
4. India - The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
5. France - Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi
6. Italy - The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante
7. Hungary - The Proof by Agota Kristof
8. Iceland - The Creator by Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir
9. Finland - Travelling Light by Tove Jansson
10. Australia - All The Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld (which is awesome, by the way)

Great selections, and a challenge worth taking. As a literature major in my youth, I had to read books written by writers from other countries, and I always felt it extremely worthwhile. Russian literature held my interest, as did European writers. I do hope you finish your list. Maybe, after I retire in eight months, I'll take that same challenge. Thanks for the push.

*Update*
1. UK - A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland
2. China - 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo
3. USA - Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
4. India - The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
5. France - Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi
6. Italy - The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante
7. Hungary - The Proof by Agota Kristof
8. Iceland - The Creator by Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir
9. Finland - Travelling Light by Tove Jansson
10. Australia - All The Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
11. Palastine - Touch by Adania Shibli
12. Nigeria - Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (wow!)

*Update*
1. UK - A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland
2. China - 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo
3. USA - Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
4. India - The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
5. France - Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi
6. Italy - The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante
7. Hungary - The Proof by Agota Kristof
8. Iceland - The Creator by Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir
9. Finland - Travelling Light by Tove Jansson
10. Australia - All The Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
11. Palastine - Touch by Adania Shibli
12. Nigeria - Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
13. Haiti - Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat

*Update*
1. UK - A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland
2. China - 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo
3. USA - Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
4. India - The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
5. France - Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi
6. Italy - The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante
7. Hungary - The Proof by Agota Kristof
8. Iceland - The Creator by Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir
9. Finland - Travelling Light by Tove Jansson
10. Australia - All The Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
11. Palastine - Touch by Adania Shibli
12. Nigeria - Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
13. Haiti - Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
14. Chippewa - The Round House by Louise Erdrich

Around the world in 80 books :

Iceland
1. Independent People (Halldor Laxness)


Ireland
2. The Butcher Boy (Patrick McCabe)
3. The Book of Evidence (John Banville)
4. The Trusting and the Maimed and Other Irish Stories (James Plunkett)
5. Mercier et Camier (Samuel Beckett)


Scotland
6. The Wasp Factory (Iain Banks)
7. How Late It Was, How Late (James Kelman)
8. The Ballad of Peckham Rye (Muriel Spark)


England
9. In the Springtime of the Year (Susan Hill)
10. Where Angels Fear to Tread (E. M. Forster)
11. The Accidental Woman (Jonathan Coe)
12. David Copperfield (Charles Dickens)
13. Murder Must Advertise (Dorothy L. Sayers)
14. Regeneration (Pat Barker)
15. Black Dogs (Ian McEwan)
16. The Third Man and The Fallen Idol (Graham Greene)


Portugal
17. All the Names (José Saramago)


Spain
18. Un Cœur Si Blanc (Javier Marias)


France
19. La Place de l'Etoile (Patrick Modiano)
20. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Victor Hugo)
21. Exercices de Style (Raymond Queneau)
22. Journal d'un Corps (Daniel Pennac)


Switzerland
23. The Swiss Family Robinson (Johann Wyss)


Germany
24. The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (Heinrich Böll)
25. Le Stechlin (Theodor Fontane)
26. The Emigrants (W. G. Sebald)
27. Perfume (Patrick Süskind)
28. The Quest for Christa T. (Christa Wolf)
29. Eva's Cousin (Sybille Knauss)


Netherlands
30. Max Havelaar (Multatuli)


Denmark
31. Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow (Peter Hoeg)


Norway
32. La Faim (Knut Hamsun)


Sweden
33. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Steig Larsson)
34. Meurtriers Sans Visage (Henning Mankell)


Czech Republic
35. The Castle (Franz Kafka)


Austria
36. La Pianiste (Elfriede Jelinek)
37. Amok (Stefan Zweig)
38. Wittgenstein's Nephew (Thomas Bernhard)


Italy
39. The Leopard (Giuseppe di Lampedusa)
40. If This is a Man (Primo Levi)


Albania
41. Froides Fleurs d'Avril (Ismail Kadaré)


Serbia
42. Le Pont Sur Le Drina (Ivo Andric)


Hungary
43. Les Braises (Sandor Maraï)


Belarus
44. Un Eté à Baden-Baden (Leonid Tsypkin)


Russia
45. The Life of Insects (Victor Pelevin)
46. Le Voyageur Enchanté (Nicolaï Leskov)
47. Pères et Fils (Ivan Tourgueniev)


Turkey
48. My Name is Red (Orhan Pamuk)


India
49. The Home and the World (Rabindranath Tagore)


Japan
50. Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami)


Philippines
51. The Mango Bride (Marivi Soliven)


Australia
52. Oscar and Lucinda (Peter Carey)
53. Voss (Patrick White)


New Zealand
54. Bliss and Other Stories (Katherine Mansfield)


Chile
55. La Maison aux Esprits (Isabel Allende)


Argentina
56. L'Année où le Lion S'est Echappé (Carlos Sampayo)


Peru
57. The Green House (Mario Vargas Llosa)


Colombia
58. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)


Cuba
59. Le Royaume de ce Monde (Alejo Carpentier)


Mexico
60. Like Water for Chocolate (Laura Esquivel)


U. S. A.
61. So Long, See You Tomorrow (William Maxwell)
62. The House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros)
63. Housekeeping (Marilynne Robinson)
64. The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway)
65. Cannery Row (John Steinbeck)
66. Farewell, My Lovely (Raymond Chandler)
67. Lullaby (Chuck Palahniuk)
68. Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zola Neale Hurston)
69. Cat's Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut)
70. Franny and Zooey (J. D. Salinger)
71. The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)


Canada
72. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
73. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)


South Africa
74. Life & Times of Michael K (J. M. Coetzee)
75. Cry, the Beloved Country (Alan Paton)
76. Selected Stories (Nadine Gordimer)


Zimbabwe
77. Nervous Conditions (Tsitsi Dangarembga)


Nigeria
78. Waiting for an Angel (Helon Habila)
79. A Man of the People (Chinua Achebe)


Egypt
80. Dérives sur le Nil (Naguib Mahfouz)

*Updated*


1.Japan - Kafka On the Shore by Haruki Murakami

2. Russia - Demons by Dostoevsky

3. France - The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Dumas

4. England - Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

5. India - Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

6. Sweden - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

7. Canada - World of Wonders by Robertson Davies

8. Turkey - My Name Is Red by Orhand Pamuk

9. Norway - The Wife by Sigrid Undset

10. Portugal - Blindness by Jose Saramago

11. Germany - Faust by Goethe

12. Spain - The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

13. Mexico - Rasero by Francisco Rebolledo

14. New Zeland - The Bone People by Keri Hulme

15. Iran - My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad

16. Scotland - Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott

17. Iceland - Iceland's Bell by Halldor Laxness

18. Australia - Jacke Maggs by Peter Carey

19. Finland - Purge by Sofi Oksanen

20. Greece - Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by papayahed

3. USA - Sewer, Gas & Electric. The Public Works Trilogy by Matt Ruff
4. Ireland - Dracula by Bram Stoker
5. Mexico - The Strain by Guillermo De Toro and Chuck Hogan

---

6. Peru- Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter: A Novel by Mario Vargas Llosa

1. England - Rubicon, The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland
2. Russia - We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
3. USA - Sewer, Gas & Electric. The Public Works Trilogy by Matt Ruff
4. Ireland - Dracula by Bram Stoker
5. Mexico - The Strain by Guillermo De Toro and Chuck Hogan
6. Peru- Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter: A Novel by Mario Vargas Llosa
7. Australia - Only in Spain by Nellie Bennett
8. Canada - Star Wars: Darth Bane Trilogy Book 1 by Drew Karpyshyn


The last two seem like a technicality but I'm claiming them anyways (until I read something else from those countries).

Interesting topic. It's good to see people endeavouring to internationalise their reading habits. An old thread but I think it's always relevant. I was taking stock of the novels I have read this year and I think my list is a bit more diverse than it was in the last two years. If I have read multiple novels from one country, I am listing only one book.

What about dual nationals? Immigrants? Is Milan Kundera's later French works qualify as French novels? He's is originally a Czech native and wrote his early novels in Czech language? Should Nabokov be classified as Russian or American if we're reading one of his novels which were written originally in Russian? Is Salman Rushdie Indian or British? Was Khalil Gibran, who like Nabokov wrote with equal facility in his native Arabic as well as adopted English, Lebanese or American? Do you conciser V.S. Naipaul to be Caribbean, or Indian or British, or Indian-Caribbean-British?

1. Turkey: Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk
2. Russia: The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
3. Czech Republic or Czechoslovakia: The Joke by Milan Kundera
4. Pakistan: Trespassing by Uzma Aslam Khan
5. Brazil: The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Machado de Assis
6. India: Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai
7. Argentina - Ficciones by J.L.Borges (partial)
8. Colombia - Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Marquez
9. France - Selected Stories by Honoré de Balzac
10. Canada - The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
11. United States - The Pearl by John Steinbeck
12. England - To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
13. Albania - The Palace of Dreams by Ismail Kadare
14. Japan - Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
15. Nigeria - Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
16. Switzerland? - Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
17. Sudan - Minaret by Leila Aboulela
18. Ireland - The Gathering by Anne Enright
19. Lebanon/France(?) - Samarkand by Amin Maalouf

Hmmm only 19 countries. No good!

If I include poetry, then

20. Romania - Selected Poems by Paul Celan
21. Chile - The Captain's Verses by Pablo Neruda
22. Arabia/medieval Syria - The Diwan of Abu'l-Ala Al-Ma'arri by tr. Henry Baerlein
23. Iran/Persia - The Diwan of Hafiz Shirazi (partial)
24. Occupied Palestine - A River Dies of Thirst by Mahmood Darwish (still reading)
25. Poland - I Wrote Stone by Ryszard Kapuściński (still reading)

And quite a lot of poetry from various countries mentioned in the novel section mostly from the UK, medieval Persia and pre-colonial Indian Subcontinent.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Marbles

What about dual nationals? Immigrants? Is Milan Kundera's later French works qualify as French novels? He's is originally a Czech native and wrote his early novels in Czech language? Should Nabokov be classified as Russian or American if we're reading one of his novels which were written originally in Russian? Is Salman Rushdie Indian or British? Was Khalil Gibran, who like Nabokov wrote with equal facility in his native Arabic as well as adopted English, Lebanese or American? Do you conciser V.S. Naipaul to be Caribbean, or Indian or British, or Indian-Caribbean-British?

---

I struggled with that question myself, sometimes I am not quite sure who should be counted for what. I myself wasn't quite sure how I should classify V.S. Naipaul and I also could not decide if I should count Conrad as a Polish writer or English/British author.

I would say it really is just a judgement call on each individual reader.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dark Muse

I struggled with that question myself, sometimes I am not quite sure who should be counted for what. I myself wasn't quite sure how I should classify V.S. Naipaul and I also could not decide if I should count Conrad as a Polish writer or English/British author.

I would say it really is just a judgement call on each individual reader.

---

Yes, and this raises important questions as to how we classify literature in our times. There are so many good writers today with complex backgrounds and diverse life experiences, and writing in native and/or adopted languages about topics we'd normally not associate with them, that the old classifications of literature based on writers' countries of origin and/or nationality seem unfit to me. I think rapid globalisation and demographic changes which really began after WWII have now matured to the point that we perhaps need to move forward to the spirit of the Middle Ages when only the content and the language mattered (even language was secondary). No one really cared where you came from and which king you were a subject of, or a citizen of xyz country in today's political terminology, as long as you had a good thing to say. I think modern international zeitgeist is returning to the same old outlook that was in currency before the concepts of nation-state and exclusiveness of one's ethnicity and language took root.

Apart from the difficulty of assigning nation-states to writers like Naipaul and Kundera, there is a further question of the carrier language. Should the language of writing be also considered together with nationality? For example, many people whose native or first language is not English or French or Spanish are writing in those languages without being dual citizens or migrants. Just take on look at English novels coming from India, which is a established tradition for a long time, and relatively recently from Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Or consider French writing from the countries of the Maghreb. How would you classify writers from those African and South Asian countries setting their stories in the West and writing in Western languages? Or conversely, what about this guy?

Nobel Committee still insists that novelists/poets write in their 'own' language (whatever they mean by it) to be considered a representative writer from that country (what about countries where there are multiple languages?) Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk who won the Nobel a few years ago wouldn't have got the prize if his novels were written originally in German, which he's very capable of doing.

Although for the majority this is not a problem as they tend to write in the language of the country where they hold nationality, but as we come across more and more major cases of blurred identities of nationality and language, and even of subject matter, do you think we should rethink current classifications?

I think it's unwise to categorize literature by the nationality or heritage of a writer. Otherwise you end up with absurdities like Never Let Me Go being classified as Japanese literature. Categorizing by language isn't ideal either, but at least the original language of a work says something about the work. Even in the case of South Asian literature written in English, you know that the work necessarily borrows from the traditions of English-language literature, because South Asian writers haven't reinvented the English literary language, only adapted it somewhat.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lichtrausch

Even in the case of South Asian literature written in English, you know that the work necessarily borrows from the traditions of English-language literature, because South Asian writers haven't reinvented the English literary language, only adapted it somewhat.

---

It is my observation that in the case of South Asian literature in English there's a big gulf between novels written directly in English and those produced in national/local languages. In this case the choice of language determines to a great extent one's point of view, moral standpoints and cultural and intellectual references that writers make use of in their works. A sort of de facto liberal understanding of the world pervades in literature written in English, somewhat contrived and forced, and often writers set to write about the 'home society' from an outsider's point of view, not really getting under the skin of things, not really writing from inside the cultural milieu they claim to represent. Far more compelling works in translation do not get noticed but novels authored originally in English are often praised to the skies. In the case of Pakistan, for instance, how many readers of international and/or South Asian fiction know the stellar works produced by Intizar Hussain and Abdullah Hussain (both write in Urdu and have been partially translated) compared to English novelists like Mohsin Hamid, Kamila Shamsie and Nadeem Aslam (the last one a long-term migrant to the UK). I'm not familiar with Indian literature in local languages but there too as elsewhere literature produced directly in English gets a lot of more attention. So in this case it is the language which is (unfairly) determining the reach of literature produced in South Asian countries. On the contrary best literature produced in local languages in for example Japan, China, Turkey, Latin America etc is available in English in abundance.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Marbles

It is my observation that in the case of South Asian literature in English there's a big gulf between novels written directly in English and those produced in national/local languages. In this case the choice of language determines to a great extent one's point of view, moral standpoints and cultural and intellectual references that writers make use of in their works. A sort of de facto liberal understanding of the world pervades in literature written in English, somewhat contrived and forced, and often writers set to write about the 'home society' from an outsider's point of view, not really getting under the skin of things, not really writing from inside the cultural milieu they claim to represent.

---

I believe it. I'm really looking forward to delving into literature written in the local languages of South Asia. I plan to learn Hindi at some point down the road.

If you want to do Denmark, how about anything by Isak Dinesen? Out of Africa, or some of her short stories? :)

1. England - Rubicon, The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland
2. Russia - We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
3. USA - Sewer, Gas & Electric. The Public Works Trilogy by Matt Ruff
4. Ireland - Dracula by Bram Stoker
5. Mexico - The Strain by Guillermo De Toro and Chuck Hogan
6. Peru- Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter: A Novel by Mario Vargas Llosa
7. Australia - Only in Spain by Nellie Bennett
8. Canada - Star Wars: Darth Bane Trilogy Book 1 by Drew Karpyshyn
9. Sweden- The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg

1. China - Diary of a Madman and other stories by Lu Xun
2. Japan - Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
3. India - The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore
4. Russia - Collected Short Stories by Anton Chekhov
5. Poland - Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
6. Hungary - A Book of Memories by Peter Nadas
7. Czech Republic - Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
8. Germany - The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
9. Austria - The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil
10. France - Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
11. Italy - If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino
12. Finland - The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
13. Norway - The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas
14. Belgium - Memories of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
15. Denmark - The Sickness Unto Death by Søren Kierkegaard
16. Spain - Nada by Carmen Laforet
17. Portugal - The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
18. Greece - Antigone by Sophocles
19. Kenya - A Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
20. South Africa - Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
21. Cameroon - Houseboy by Ferdinand Oyono
22. Senegal - So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba
23. Zimbabwe - Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga + Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter by J. Nozipo Maraire
24. Nigeria - The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola + The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
25. Sudan - Seasons of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
26. Egypt - Children of Gebelawi by Naguib Mahfouz
27. Afghanistan - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
28. Mexico - Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo
29. Colombia - 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
30. Cuba - The Lost Steps by Alejo Carpentier
31. Brazil - The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector
32. Argentina - On Heroes and Tombs by Ernesto Sabato
33. Chile - The Poetry of Pablo Neruda by Pablo Neruda
34. Peru - Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa
35. Guatemala - Mulata - Miguel Ángel Asturias

From Mexico: Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo
From my country Argentina: Borges' Ficciones

I don't think anyone has managed to read 80 countries? Somebody prove me wrong!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dark Muse

I went through my bookshelves/stacks to see just how many countries I already have covered, and I have to say it is more than I would have thought. Though it is still a far cry from 80 it will keep me busy reading for a while before I have to venture out.

So presently I own books by authors from these countries:

Greece
France
Italy
Russia
Spain
Japan
Turkey
Ireland
Nigeria
Norway
China
India
Poland
Australia
Serbia
Portugal
Hungary
Germany
New Zealand
Iceland
Zambia
Canada

---

WOW! You have good information. You better learn

*Updated*


1.Japan - Kafka On the Shore by Haruki Murakami

2. Russia - Demons by Dostoevsky

3. France - The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Dumas

4. England - Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

5. India - Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

6. Sweden - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

7. Canada - World of Wonders by Robertson Davies

8. Turkey - My Name Is Red by Orhand Pamuk

9. Norway - The Wife by Sigrid Undset

10. Portugal - Blindness by Jose Saramago

11. Germany - Faust by Goethe

12. Spain - The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

13. Mexico - Rasero by Francisco Rebolledo

14. New Zeland - The Bone People by Keri Hulme

15. Iran - My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad

16. Scotland - Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott

17. Iceland - Iceland's Bell by Halldor Laxness

18. Australia - Jacke Maggs by Peter Carey

19. Finland - Purge by Sofi Oksanen

20. Greece - Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis

21. Hungary - Casanova in Bolzano by Sandor Marai

*Updated*


1.Japan - Kafka On the Shore by Haruki Murakami

2. Russia - Demons by Dostoevsky

3. France - The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Dumas

4. England - Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

5. India - Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

6. Sweden - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

7. Canada - World of Wonders by Robertson Davies

8. Turkey - My Name Is Red by Orhand Pamuk

9. Norway - The Wife by Sigrid Undset

10. Portugal - Blindness by Jose Saramago

11. Germany - Faust by Goethe

12. Spain - The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

13. Mexico - Rasero by Francisco Rebolledo

14. New Zeland - The Bone People by Keri Hulme

15. Iran - My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad

16. Scotland - Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott

17. Iceland - Iceland's Bell by Halldor Laxness

18. Australia - Jacke Maggs by Peter Carey

19. Finland - Purge by Sofi Oksanen

20. Greece - Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis

21. Hungary - Casanova in Bolzano by Sandor Marai

22. Nigeria - Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

23. Ireland - City of Bohane by Kevin Barry

*Update*
1. UK - A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland
2. China - 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo
3. USA - Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
4. India - The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
5. France - Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi
6. Italy - The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante
7. Hungary - The Proof by Agota Kristof
8. Iceland - The Creator by Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir
9. Finland - Travelling Light by Tove Jansson
10. Australia - All The Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
11. Palestine - Touch by Adania Shibli
12. Nigeria - Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
13. Haiti - Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
14. Chippewa - The Round House by Louise Erdrich
15. South Korea – The Vegetarian by Han Kang
16. Germany – The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald
17. Ireland – Full Tilt by Dervla Murphy
18. Canada – Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
19. Austria – A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter
20. Japan – Masks by Fumiko Enchi
21. Norway – Days in the History of Silence by Merethe Lindstrøm
22. Albania - Sworn Virgin by Elvira Dones

My taste is much more Anglo-American, but here goes:

1. Canada--Anil's Ghost by Micheal Ondaatje
2. USA--Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
3. Argentina--Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
4. Germany--Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
5. England--Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
6. Ireland--Ulysses by James Joyce
7. France--Remembrances of Things Past by Marcel Proust
8. Belgium--Collected Essays by Paul De Man
9. Denmark--The Sickness Unto Death by Soren Kierkegaard
10. Norway--Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen
11. Sweden--A Dream Play by August Strindberg
12. Russia--The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
13. Italy--The Divine Comedy by Dante
14. Japan--Stained Glass Elegies by Shusaku Endo
15. Australia--The Great World by David Malouf

I think I'll start Antipodean and head homewards slowly. I'll begin with Sargeson's "I Saw in my Dream". I"ll head for Australia next.

*Updated*


1.Japan - Kafka On the Shore by Haruki Murakami

2. Russia - Demons by Dostoevsky

3. France - The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Dumas

4. England - Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

5. India - Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

6. Sweden - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

7. Canada - World of Wonders by Robertson Davies

8. Turkey - My Name Is Red by Orhand Pamuk

9. Norway - The Wife by Sigrid Undset

10. Portugal - Blindness by Jose Saramago

11. Germany - Faust by Goethe

12. Spain - The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

13. Mexico - Rasero by Francisco Rebolledo

14. New Zeland - The Bone People by Keri Hulme

15. Iran - My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad

16. Scotland - Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott

17. Iceland - Iceland's Bell by Halldor Laxness

18. Australia - Jacke Maggs by Peter Carey

19. Finland - Purge by Sofi Oksanen

20. Greece - Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis

21. Hungary - Casanova in Bolzano by Sandor Marai

22. Nigeria - Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

23. Ireland - City of Bohane by Kevin Barry

24. Italy - The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lamedusa

I'd like to think such an activity would be original interesting and authentic but for most it is just a way of showing off a paltry knowledge of a handful of translations

I wonder if Bligh's account of his voyage to Timor would be an acceptable book in this sequence.

1. England - Rubicon, The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland
2. Russia - We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
3. USA - Sewer, Gas & Electric. The Public Works Trilogy by Matt Ruff
4. Ireland - Dracula by Bram Stoker
5. Mexico - The Strain by Guillermo De Toro and Chuck Hogan
6. Peru- Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter: A Novel by Mario Vargas Llosa
7. Australia - Only in Spain by Nellie Bennett
8. Canada - Star Wars: Darth Bane Trilogy Book 1 by Drew Karpyshyn
9. Sweden- The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg
10. Turkey - Snow by Orhan Pamuk
11. Israel - The Goal by Goldratt, Eliyahu M.
12. France - The Missing Link by Caroline Mondon
13. Spain - The Seville Communion by Arturo Perez-Reverte

1. England - Rubicon, The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland
2. Russia - We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
3. USA - Sewer, Gas & Electric. The Public Works Trilogy by Matt Ruff
4. Ireland - Dracula by Bram Stoker
5. Mexico - The Strain by Guillermo De Toro and Chuck Hogan
6. Peru- Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter: A Novel by Mario Vargas Llosa
7. Australia - Only in Spain by Nellie Bennett
8. Canada - Star Wars: Darth Bane Trilogy Book 1 by Drew Karpyshyn
9. Sweden- The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg
10. Turkey - Snow by Orhan Pamuk
11. Israel - The Goal by Goldratt, Eliyahu M.
12. France - The Missing Link by Caroline Mondon
13. Spain - The Seville Communion by Arturo Perez-Reverte
14. Blitzed -Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler

1. England - Rubicon, The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland
2. Russia - We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
3. USA - Sewer, Gas & Electric. The Public Works Trilogy by Matt Ruff
4. Ireland - Dracula by Bram Stoker
5. Mexico - The Strain by Guillermo De Toro and Chuck Hogan
6. Peru- Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter: A Novel by Mario Vargas Llosa
7. Australia - Only in Spain by Nellie Bennett
8. Canada - Star Wars: Darth Bane Trilogy Book 1 by Drew Karpyshyn
9. Sweden- The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg
10. Turkey - Snow by Orhan Pamuk
11. Israel - The Goal by Goldratt, Eliyahu M.
12. France - The Missing Link by Caroline Mondon
13. Spain - The Seville Communion by Arturo Perez-Reverte
14. Blitzed -Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler
15. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

1. England - Rubicon, The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland
2. Russia - We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
3. USA - Sewer, Gas & Electric. The Public Works Trilogy by Matt Ruff
4. Ireland - Dracula by Bram Stoker
5. Mexico - The Strain by Guillermo De Toro and Chuck Hogan
6. Peru- Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter: A Novel by Mario Vargas Llosa
7. Australia - Only in Spain by Nellie Bennett
8. Canada - Star Wars: Darth Bane Trilogy Book 1 by Drew Karpyshyn
9. Sweden- The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg
10. Turkey - Snow by Orhan Pamuk
11. Israel - The Goal by Goldratt, Eliyahu M.
12. France - The Missing Link by Caroline Mondon
13. Spain - The Seville Communion by Arturo Perez-Reverte
14. Blitzed -Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler
15. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino