This page will be a work in progress as I begin to plan and map out (pun intended) my Reading Around the World challenge inspired by Ann Morgan. I know other people are engaging in this type of challenge, but for me half the fun is in the research, and I’d really like to read different books than those who have gone before.
At this point I’m wanting to focus on modern writers, and preferably modern female writers. I’m very open to suggestions, so please feel free to leave some for me!
I’ve set up a shelf on Goodreads to also help keep track of all the amazing books I will no doubt find.
There will be no rhyme or reason to the way this list grows. But it will be alphabetical by country by the time I’m done. Bolded entries are ones I have read.
Afghanistan: A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice by Malalai Joya
Albania: The Country Where No One Ever Dies by Ornela Vorpsi
Algeria: Algerian White by Assia Djebar
Andorra: The Teacher of Cheops by Albert Salvado
Angola: Sacred Hope by Agostinho Neto
Antigua and Barbudan: Unburnable by Marie-Elena John
Argentina: Fever Dream Samanta Schweblin (read), Things We Lost in the Fire by Martina Enriquez
Australia: Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms by Anita Heiss (read)
Canada: They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School by Bev Sellars, Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City by Tanya Talaga
Congo: Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila
Cuba: A Planet for Rent by Yoss (read)
Czech Republic: Bringing up Girls in Bohemia by Michael Viewegh, The Little Town Where Time Stood Still by Bohumil Hrabal, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
China: Chronicle of a Blood Merchant by Yu Hua, Everlasting Regret by Wang Anyi The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (read)
Ecuador: ???
Ethiopia: Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengiste, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Finland: The Nordic Theory of Everything by Anu Partanen
France: The Awkward Squad by Sophie Henaff (read)
Germany: Zen and the Art of Murder by Oliver Bottini
Ghana: Beyond the Horizon by Amma Darko
Greece: The Sleepwalkers by Margarita Karapano
Greenland: Last Night in Nuuk by Niviaq Korneliussen
India: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (read), A Life Misspent Suryakant Tripathi Nirala,
Indonesia: Home by Leila S. Chudori, The Fish Girl by Miranda Riwoe
Iran: The Cypress Tree by Kamin Mohammadi (arrived), Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Iraq: A Sky so Close by Betool Khedairi, Zubaida’s Window by Iqbal al-Qazwini (read) The Baghdad Eucharist by Sinan Antoon (read), Frankenstein of Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
Ireland: The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Israel: The People of Forever are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu
Japan: The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto, Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama (read)
Jordan: In the House of Silence by Fadia Faqir
Kenya: Petals of Blood or A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Unbowed by Wangari Maathai, Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owour
Korea: I’ll be Right There or Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Kim, Familiar Things by Hwang Sok-Yong (read)
Kuwait: Guapa by Saleem Haddad
Leichtenstein: ???
Liberia: Bound to Secrecy by Vamba Sherif
Marshall Islands: Iep Jaltok: Poems From a Marshallese Daughter by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner
Mexico: When it Rains: Tohono O’odham and Pima Poetry ed Ofelia Zepeda
Mongolia: ???
Nepal: The Lives We Have Lost by Manjushee Thapa
New Zealand: The Bone People by Kerri Hume, The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Nigeria: Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta (read) Satans and Shaitans by Obinna Udenwe
Pakistan: Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie, Blue Mimosa by Parijat
Papua New Guinea: Kiki: Ten Thousand Years in a Lifetime: A New Guinea Autobiography by Albert Maori Kiki
Russia: The Time of Women by Elena Chizhova, The Year of the Comet by Sergei Lebedev
Rwanda: Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza
Senegal: God’s Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembene
Sierra Leone: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, So the Path Does Not Die by Pede Hollist
Somalia: Maps by Nuruddin Farah, Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed
South Africa: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (read), Quiet Violence of Dreams
Sri Lanka: Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
Sweden: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (read)
Syria: Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Front Line by Malu Halasa; An Ishmael of Syria by Asaad Almohammad (read)
Taiwan: Notes of a Crocodile by Qui Miaojin (read)
Turkey: Honor or The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
Ukraine: The Museum of Abandoned Secrets by Oksana Zabuzhko
Uruguay: Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis (read)
Viet Nam: The Sympathiser by Viet Thanh Nguyen (read)
Zimbabwe: The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah
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