Around the World in 80 Books

[Dark Muse]

*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

[TheFifthElement]

*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

[TheFifthElement]

*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

[TheFifthElement]

*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)

[hopeingod]

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.

[TheFifthElement]

*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!)

[TheFifthElement]

*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

[TheFifthElement]

*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

[bouquin]

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)

[Dark Muse]

*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

[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

[papayahed]

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).

[Marbles]

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.

[Dark Muse]

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.

[Marbles]

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?