I am a Chinese and I recommend you Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber.
I am a Chinese and I recommend you Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber.
You might want to have a look at "Jim Flynn's" The Torchlight List when you are looking for books for this challenge.
From Pakistan, you must read The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid.
From Afghanistan : The Kite Runner
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Suggestions:Originally Posted by Dark Muse
Israel - Etgar Keret
Egypt - Naguib Mafouz
Argentine - Jorge Luis Borges
Peru - Mario Vargas Ilosa
Columbia - Gabriele García Marquez
Mexico - Octavio Paz
Czech Republic - The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Antigua and Barbuda - Jamaica Kincaid
South Africa - Nelson Mandela
17. Kenya - Nairobi Heat by Mukoma Wa Ngugi
Is anything else by Kundera worth reading?
10. Portugal - Blindness by Jose Saramago1. 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
Last edited by Dark Muse; 08-31-2012 at 07:32 PM.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
11. Germany - Faust by Goethe1. 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
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
This is a cool idea! I wish I could try it myself but where I would get eighty books from foreign lands is beyond me... (My local library's pretty Eurocentric.)
"He had a word, too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; that when the right time came, you wouldn't need a word for that any more than for pride or fear."
-As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
I know Cavafy wrote in Greek, but he was born, lived and wrote in Alexandria in Egypt. When he was born it was part of the Ottoman Empire. When he died it was independent.
I haven't read him, but I understand Nikos Kazantzakis is an important Greek author, author of Zorba the Greek and Christ Recrucified.
Anyone mentioned Ireland? Ulysses must be the Great Irish Novel if anything. The Real Charlotte by Sommerville and Ross is a good, although describing the protestant ascendency rather than the catholic majority, although highly critically.
Previously JonathanB
The more I read, the more I shall covet to read. Robert Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy Partion3, Section 1, Member 1, Subsection 1
I will probably be reading Ulysses for Ireland unless something else unexepcted comes up.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
12. Spain - The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte1. 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
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
If you want to get a less popular and deeper look on Israeli literature, I would recommend reading "Past Perfect" by Yaakov Shabtai. Etgar Keret and Amos Oz are nice, but the 'Israeliness' of their books isn't intrinsic, and therefore far less interesting for someone like you (or so I think). Another interesting, not so well known book is "The Brummstein" by the Danish author Peter Adolphsen.
Good luck!
Last edited by Cleft; 11-10-2012 at 02:19 PM.
18. Afghanistan - The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi
19. Turkey - The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
20. Ireland - Chamber Music by James Joyce
I see Belgium is still missing. I recommend Dimitri Verhulst- The Misfortunates if you're planning on reading a great and yet recent novel or else our greatest classic of all time: Hugo Claus- The Sorrow of Belgium
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