World Reading Challenge: Books Around The Globe 2019
I spent last year reading my way around the world, tackling my first world reading challenge and traveling the globe through literature. It expanded my horizons, exposing me to books I may never have found otherwise and motivated me to read more than ever before. Itย also exposed me to many new places (inspiring me to visit) and rekindled my love for others (leaving me with wanderlust for more). After an overwhelming response, many readers even joined me in this ambitious challenge too!
After such a positive experience, I’ve researched endlessly to compile a new world reading challenge so I can continue my travels through literature this year. This list includes 52 titles from around the globe – each set in a different country. The countries are random; but are all new from last year, include a mix across continents and cover those requested by you!
The books themselves are related to countries in a number of ways; they are either set there, have characters from there, reflect the culture or are by local authors. They include perspectives from natives, migrants, expatriates and visitors alike; as each have unique viewpoints.ย Many factors weigh into the selection process – popularity, awards, reviews and ratings; along with an aim for a diverse year of reading overall. 🙌
I hope youโll find something here to inspire your reading or travels, or perhaps even consider joining this world reading challenge yourself. Wishing you a wonderful year of adventures and stories ahead! 🌍
Please note: This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.
If youโre short on time, a few of my favorites from this list include:
- What Is The What by Dave Eggers
- We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
- People of the Bookย by Geraldine Brooks
- The Lady and The Unicornย by Tracy Chevalier
- The Hired Manย by Aminatta Forna
- Homegoingย byย Yaa Gyasi
And if you’re looking for more titles, this list is part of an ongoing series:
- World Reading Challenge: Books Around The Globe 2018
- World Reading Challenge: Books Around The Globe 2019
- World Reading Challenge: Books Around The Globe 2020
Want two of these titles for free?
- Try Amazon Audible freeย for 30 days and get 2 free audiobooks which you can play on loads of devices. Ideal for listening while gazing out the window. Best of all, you can cancel at any time and you can keep your books forever!
World Reading Challenge
1.
Albania:
Chronicle In Stone
byย Ismail Kadare, 1971
Masterful in its simplicity,ย Chronicle in Stoneย is a touching coming-of-age story and a testament to the perseverance of the human spirit. Surrounded by the magic of beautiful women and literature, a boy must endure the deprivations of war as he suffers the hardships of growing up. His sleepy country has just thrown off centuries of tyranny, but new waves of domination inundate his city. Through the boy’s eyes, we see the terrors of World War II as he witnesses fascist invasions, allied bombings, partisan infighting, and the many faces of human cruelty as well as the simple pleasures of life.
Read it already?
Broken April by Ismail Kadare
2.
Algeria:
The Stranger
byย Albert Camus, 1942
Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed “the nakedness of man faced with the absurd.”
Read it already?
Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khandra
Note: This is set in Kabul, Afghanistan; but Khandra is a notable Algerian author.ย
3.
Austria:
The Piano Teacher
by Elfriede Jelinek, 1983
Please note: This book is a difficult read as it is dark, disturbing and rather uncomfortable. It includes themes such as self-harm, domestic violence and sexual dominance that I do not recommend for younger audiences.
The Piano Teacher,ย the most famous novel of Elfriede Jelinek, who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature, is a shocking, searing, aching portrait of a woman bound between a repressive society and her darkest desires.
Read it already?
The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
4.
Azerbaijan:
Ali and Nino
byย Kurban Said, 1937
Ali and Ninoย is Kurban Said’s masterpiece. It is a captivating novel as evocative of the exotic desert landscape as it is of the passion between two people pulled apart by culture, religion, and war.
It is the eve of World War I in Baku, Azerbaijan, a city on the edge of the Caspian Sea, poised precariously between east and west. Ali Khan Shirvanshir, a Muslim schoolboy from a proud, aristocratic family, has fallen in love with the beautiful and enigmatic Nino Kipiani, a Christian girl with distinctly European sensibilities. To be together they must overcome blood feud and scandal, attempt a daring horseback rescue, and travel from the bustling street of oil-boom Baku, through starkly beautiful deserts and remote mountain villages, to the opulent palace of Ali’s uncle in neighboring Persia.
Read it already?
The Orphan Sky by Ella Leya
5.
Belgium:
The Lady and The Unicorn
byย Tracy Chevalier, 2003
Please note: This book is not primarily set in Belgium, it is also set in France.
Paris, 1490.ย A shrewd French nobleman commissions six lavish tapestries celebrating his rising status at Court. He hires the charismatic, arrogant, sublimely talented Nicolas des Innocents to design them. Nicolas creates havoc among the women in the houseโmother and daughter, servant, and lady-in-waitingโbefore taking his designs north to the Brussels workshop where the tapestries are to be woven. There, master weaver Georges de la Chapelle risks everything he has to finish the tapestriesโhis finest, most intricate workโon time for his exacting French client. The results change all their livesโlives that have been captured in the tapestries, for those who know where to look.
Read it already?
War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans
Books Set in Belgium
6.
Bolivia:
Marching Powder
byย Rusty Young, 2003
Rusty Young was backpacking in South America when he heard about Thomas McFadden, a convicted English drug trafficker who ran tours inside Bolivia’s notorious San Pedro prison. Intrigued, the young Australian journalist went to La Paz and joined one of Thomas’s illegal tours. They formed an instant friendship and then became partners in an attempt to record Thomas’s experiences in the jail. Rusty bribed the guards to allow him to stay and for the next three months he lived inside the prison, sharing a cell with Thomas and recording one of the strangest and most compelling prison stories of all time. The result isย Marching Powder.
Read it already?
The Fat Man from La Paz by Rosario Santos
7.
Bosnia and Herzegovina:
People of the Book
by Geraldine Brooks, 2008
In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient bindingโan insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hairโshe begins to unlock the bookโs mysteries. The reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the bookโs journey from its salvation back to its creation.
Read it already?
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
8.
Croatia:
The Hired Man
byย Aminatta Forna, 2013
Duro is off on a morningโs hunt when he sees something one rarely does in Gost: a strange car. Later that day, he overhears its occupants, a British woman, Laura, and her two children, who have taken up residence in a house Duro knows well. He offers his assistance getting their water working again, and soon he is at the house every day, helping get it ready as their summer cottage, and serving as Lauraโs trusted confidant.
Read it already?
Girl at War by Sara Noviฤ
9.
Cuba:
Our Man In Havana
byย Graham Greene, 1958
Our Man in Havanaย is an espionage thriller, a penetrating character study, and a political satire that still resonates to this day. Conceived as one of Graham Greene’s ‘entertainments,’ it tells of MI6’s man in Havana, Wormold, a former vacuum-cleaner salesman turned reluctant secret agent out of economic necessity. To keep his job, he files bogus reports based on Lamb’sย Tales from Shakespeareย and dreams up military installations from vacuum-cleaner designs. Then his stories start coming disturbingly true.
Read it already?
Monkey Hunting by Cristinaย Garcรญa
10.
Czech Republic:
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
byย Milan Kundera, 1984
Inย The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. This magnificent novel juxtaposes geographically distant places, brilliant and playful reflections, and a variety of styles, to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the worldโs truly great writers.
Read it already?
The Trialย byย Franz Kafka
11.
Denmark:
Number The Stars
byย Lois Lowry, 1989
Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It’s now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are “relocated,” Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family. Soon Annemarie is asked to go on a dangerous mission to save Ellen’s life.
Read it already?
Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow byย Peter Hรธeg
Books Set In Scandinavia
12.
Ecuador:
The Queen of Water
byย Laura Resau, 2011
In this poignant novel based on a true story, Virginia’s story will speak to anyone who has ever struggled to find his or her place in the world. It will make you laugh and cry, and ultimately, it will fill you with hope.
Born in an Andean village in Ecuador, Virginia lives with her large family in a small, earthen-walled dwelling. In her village of indรญgenas, it is not uncommon to work in the fields all day, even as a child, or to be called a longa tonta – stupid Indian – by members of the ruling class of mestizos, or Spanish descendants. When seven-year-old Virginia is taken from her village to be a servant to a mestizo couple, she has no idea what the future holds.
Read it already?
The Old Man Who Read Love Stories by Luis Sepรบlveda
13.
Finland:
The Summer Book
byย Tove Jansson, 1972
An elderly artist and her six-year-old granddaughter while away a summer together on a tiny island in the gulf of Finland. Gradually, the two learn to adjust to each other’s fears, whims and yearnings for independence, and a fierce yet understated love emerges – one that encompasses not only the summer inhabitants but the island itself, with its mossy rocks, windswept firs and unpredictable seas.
Read it already?
The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna
Books Set In Scandinavia
14.
Georgia:
A Time of Miracles
byย Anne-Laure Bondoux, 2007
Blaise Fortune, also known as Koumaรฏl, loves hearing the story of how he came to live with Gloria in the Republic of Georgia: Gloria was picking peaches in her fatherโs orchard when she heard a train derail. After running to the site of the accident, she found an injured woman who asked Gloria to take her baby. The woman, Gloria claims, was French, and the baby was Blaise.
Read it already?
Avelum by Otar Chiladze
15.
Ghana:
Homegoing
byย Yaa Gyasi, 2016
A novel of breathtaking sweep and emotional power that traces three hundred years in Ghana and along the way also becomes a truly great American novel. Extraordinary for its exquisite language, its implacable sorrow, its soaring beauty, and for its monumental portrait of the forces that shape families and nations,ย Homegoingย heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.
Read it already?
The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah
16.
Guam:
Keeper of the Night
byย Kimberly Willis Holt, 2003
Isabel’s mother died peacefully. At least that’s what Isabel likes to think since no one in her family will talk about the truth. But in spite of their avoidance, in spite of their brave faces, the truth has a way of revealing itself at night, in her family’s behavior. Her father sleeps curled up on the floor right where Mama’s body was found. Olivia wets her bed and wakes repeatedly from nightmares, and Frank has started carving his anger into his bedroom wall. It’s up to Isabel to help her family get beyond the pain and loss–to be the keeper of the night. But who will help Isabel?
Read it already?
The Island of the Colorblind by Oliver Sacks
17.
Haiti:
Breath, Eyes, Memory
byย Edwidge Danticat, 1994
At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from her impoverished village of Croix-des-Rosets to New York, to be reunited with a mother she barely remembers. There she discovers secrets that no child should ever know, and a legacy of shame that can be healed only when she returns to Haiti–to the women who first reared her. What ensues is a passionate journey through a landscape charged with the supernatural and scarred by political violence, in a novel that bears witness to the traditions, suffering, and wisdom of an entire people.
Read it already?
The Comedians by Graham Greene
18.
Honduras:
Enrique’s Journey
byย Sonia Nazario, 2005
Please note: this novel spans a number of countries, including Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and the United States.
In this astonishing true story, award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario recounts the unforgettable odyssey of a Honduran boy who braves unimaginable hardship and peril to reach his mother in the United States. When Enrique is five years old, his mother, Lourdes, too poor to feed her children, leaves Honduras to work in the United States. The move allows her to send money back home to Enrique so he can eat better and go to school past the third grade.
Read it already?
The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston
19.
Hong Kong:
The Piano Teacher
byย Janice Y. K. Lee, 2008
Exotic Hong Kong takes center stage in this sumptuous novel, set in the 1940s and โ50s. Itโs a city teeming with people, sights, sounds, and smells, and itโs home to a group of foreign nationals who enjoy the good life among the local moneyed set, in a tight-knit social enclave distanced from the culture at large. Comfortable, clever, and even a bit dazzling, they revel in their fancy dinners and fun parties. But their sheltered lives take an abrupt turn after the Japanese occupation, and though their reactions are varied โ denial, resistance, submission โ the toll it takes on all is soon laid bare.
Read it already?
Love In A Fallen City by Eileen Chang
Books Set in China and Hong Kong
20.
Hungary:
The Door
by Magda Szabรณ, 1987
A busy young writer struggling to cope with domestic chores, hires a housekeeper recommended by a friend. The housekeeper’s reputation is one built on dependable efficiency, though she is something of an oddity. Stubborn, foul-mouthed and with a flagrant disregard for her employer’s opinions she may even be crazy. She allows no-one to set foot inside her house; she masks herself with a veil and is equally guarded about her personal life. And yet Emerence is revered as much as she is feared.
As the story progresses her energy and passion to help becomes clear, extinguishing any doubts arising out of her bizarre behaviour. A stylishly told tale which recounts a strange relationship built up over 20 years between a writer and her housekeeper. After an unpromising and caustic start benign feelings develop and ultimately the writer benefits from what becomes an inseparable relationship. Simultaneously we learn Emerence’s tragic past which is revealed in snapshots throughout the book.
Read it already?
The Invisible Bridge byย Julie Orringer
21.
Israel:
A Tale of Love and Darkness
byย Amos Oz, 2002
Tragic, comic, and utterly honest, A Tale of Love and Darkness is at once a family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation and lived through its turbulent history. It is the story of a boy growing up in the war-torn Jerusalem of the forties and fifties, in a small apartment crowded with books in twelve languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. The story of an adolescent whose life has been changed forever by his mother’s suicide when he was twelve years old.
Read it already?
The Hilltop by Assaf Gavron
22.
Laos:
The Coroners Lunch
By Colin Cotterill, 2004
Laos, 1978: Dr. Siri Paiboun, a 72-year-old medical doctor, has been unwillingly appointed the national coroner of newly-socialist Laos. Though his lab is underfunded, his boss is incompetent, and his support staff is quirky to say the least, Siriโs sense of humor gets him through his often frustrating days.
When the body of the wife of a prominent politician comes through his morgue, Siri has reason to suspect the woman has been murdered. To get to the truth, Siri and his team face government secrets, spying neighbors, victim hauntings, Hmong shamans, botched romances, and other deadly dangers. Somehow, Siri must figure out a way to balance the will of the party and the will of the dead.
Read it already?
Ant Egg Soup by Natacha Du Pont De Bie
23.
Lebanon:
The Hakawati
byย Rabih Alameddine,ย 2008
An inventive, exuberant novel that takes us from the shimmering dunes of ancient Egypt to the war-torn streets of twenty-first-century Lebanon. In 2003, Osama al-Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand vigil at his fatherโs deathbed. The city is a shell of the Beirut Osama remembers, but he and his friends and family take solace in the things that have always sustained them: gossip, laughter, and, above all, stories.
Osamaโs grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his bewitching storiesโof his arrival in Lebanon, an orphan of the Turkish wars, and of how he earned the name al-Kharrat, the fibsterโare interwoven with classic tales of the Middle East, stunningly reimagined.
Read it already?
The Locust and the Birdย byย Hannan Al-Shaykh
24.
Malaysia:
The Gift of Rain
byย Tan Twan Eng, 2007
Set in Penang, 1939, this book presents a story of betrayal, barbaric cruelty, steadfast courage and enduring love.
The recipient of extraordinary acclaim from critics and the bookselling community, Tan Twan Engโs debut novel casts a powerful spell. Set during the tumult of World War II, on the lush Malayan island of Penang,ย The Gift of Rainย tells a riveting and poignant tale about a young man caught in the tangle of wartime loyalties and deceits.
Read it already?
The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka
Books Set in Malaysia
25.
Mozambique:
Sleepwalking Land (Terra Sonรขmbula)
by Mia Couto, 1992
As the civil war rages in 1980s Mozambique, an old man and a young boy, refugees from the war, seek shelter in a burnt-out bus. Among the effects of a dead passenger, they come across a set of notebooks that tell of his life. As the boy reads the story to his elderly companion, this story and their own develop in tandem. Written in 1992, Mia Coutoโs first novel is a powerful indictment of the suffering war brings.
Read it already?
The Tuner of Silences by Mia Couto
26.
Nicaragua:
The Jaguar Smile
by Salman Rushdie, 1987
In this brilliantly focused and haunting portrait of the people, the politics, the land, and the poetry of Nicaragua, Salman Rushdie brings to the forefront the palpable human facts of a country in the midst of a revolution. Rushdie went to Nicaragua in 1986, harboring no preconceptions of what he might find. What he discovered was overwhelming: a culture of heroes who had turned into inanimate objects and of politicians and warriors who were poets; a land of difficult, often beautiful contradictions. His perceptions always heightened by his special sensitivity to โthe views from underneath,โ Rushdie reveals a land resounding with the clashes between history and morality, government and individuals.
Read it already?
The Country Under My Skin by Giaconda Belli
27.
Norway:
The Ice Palace
byย Tarjei Vesaas, 1963
Commonly seen as the legendary Norwegian writer’s masterpiece, this story tells the tale of Siss and Unn, two friends who have only spent one evening in each other’s company. But so profound is this evening between them that when Unn inexplicably disappears, Siss’s world is shattered. The Ice Palace is written in prose of a lyrical economy that ranks among the most memorable achievements of modern literature.
Read it already?
The Snowman by Jo Nesbรธ
Books Set In Scandinavia
28.
Panama:
The World In Half
byย Cristina Henriquez, 2009
Miraflores has never known her father, and until now, she’s never thought that he wanted to know her. She’s long been aware that her mother had an affair with him while she was stationed with her then-husband in Panama, and she’s always assumed that her pregnant mother came back to the United States alone with his consent. But when Miraflores returns to the Chicago suburb where she grew up, to care for her mother at a time of illness, she discovers that her mother and father had a greater love than she ever thought possible and that her father had wanted her more than she could have ever imagined.
Read it already?
Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles
29.
Papua New Guinea:
Euphoria
By Lily King, 2014
In 1933 three young, gifted anthropologists are thrown together in the jungle of New Guinea. They are Nell Stone, fascinating, magnetic and famous for her controversial work studying South Pacific tribes, her intelligent and aggressive husband Fen, and Andrew Bankson, who stumbles into the lives of this strange couple and becomes totally enthralled. Within months the trio are producing their best ever work, but soon a firestorm of fierce love and jealousy begins to burn out of control, threatening their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives…
Read it already?
Imperium: A Fiction of the South Seas by Christian Kracht
30.
Paraguay:
The News From Paraguay
by Lily Tuck, 2004
The year is l854. In Paris, Francisco Solano – the future dictator of Paraguay – begins his courtship of the young, beautiful Irish courtesan Ella Lynch with a poncho, a Paraguayan band, and a horse named Mathilde. Ella follows Franco to Asunciรณn and reigns there as his mistress. Isolated and estranged in this new world, she embraces her lover’s ill-fated imperial dream – one fueled by a heedless arrogance that will devastate all of Paraguay.
Read it already?
I, The Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos
31.
Poland:
The Boy In The Striped Pajamas
by John Boyne, 2006
Note: much of this story is set in Germanย occupied Poland.
Berlin 1942. When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.
Read it already?
Night by Elie Wiesel
32.
Puerto Rico:
When I Was Puerto Rican
byย Esmeralda Santiago,ย 1993
Esmeralda Santiago’s story begins in rural Puerto Rico, where her childhood was full of both tenderness and domestic strife, tropical sounds and sights as well as poverty. Growing up, she learned the proper way to eat a guava, the sound of tree frogs in the mango groves at night, the taste of the delectable sausage called morcilla, and the formula for ushering a dead baby’s soul to heaven. As she enters school we see the clash, both hilarious and fierce, of Puerto Rican and Yankee culture. When her mother, Mami, a force of nature, takes off to New York with her seven, soon to be eleven children, Esmeralda, the oldest, must learn new rules, a new language, and eventually take on a new identity.
Read it already?
The House on the Lagoon byย Rosario Ferrรฉ
33.
Romania:
The Appointment
byย Herta Mรผller, 1997
“I’ve been summoned. Thursday, ten sharp.” Thus begins one day in the life of a young clothing-factory worker during Ceaucescu’s totalitarian regime. She has been questioned before; this time, she believes, will be worse. Her crime? Sewing notes into the linings of men’s suits bound for Italy. “Marry me,” the notes say, with her name and address. Anything to get out of the country.
As she rides the tram to her interrogation, her thoughts stray to her friend Lilli, shot trying to flee to Hungary, to her grandparents, deported after her first husband informed on them, to Major Albu, her interrogator, who begins each session with a wet kiss on her fingers, and to Paul, her lover, her one source of trust, despite his constant drunkenness. In her distraction, she misses her stop to find herself on an unfamiliar street. And what she discovers there makes her fear of the appointment pale by comparison.
Read it already?
The Land of Green Plumsย by Herta Mรผller
34.
Scotland:
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
byย Gail Honeyman, 2017
Smart, warm, uplifting, the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes the only way to survive is to open her heart. Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what sheโs thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. All this means that Eleanor has become a creature of habit (to say the least) and a bit of a loner.
Read it already?
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Books Set In Scotland
35.
Serbia:
The Tiger’s Wife
By Tรฉa Obreht, 2011
Note: the author Tรฉa Obreht was born in Belgrade, Serbia.
In a Balkan country mending from years of conflict, Natalia, a young doctor, arrives on a mission of mercy at an orphanage by the sea. By the time she and her lifelong friend Zรณra begin to inoculate the children there, she feels age-old superstitions and secrets gathering everywhere around her. Secrets her outwardly cheerful hosts have chosen not to tell her. Secrets involving the strange family digging for something in the surrounding vineyards. Secrets hidden in the landscape itself.
Read it already?
The Bridge on the Drina by Ivoย Andriฤ
Note: Though the bridge in this story is technically in Bosnia, it’s near the Serbian border.ย
36.
Singapore:
Crazy Rich Asians
byย Kevin Kwan, 2013
Crazy Rich Asiansย is the outrageously funny debut novel about three super-rich, pedigreed Chinese families and the gossip, backbiting, and scheming that occurs when the heir to one of the most massive fortunes in Asia brings home his ABC (American-born Chinese) girlfriend to the wedding of the season.
Read it already?
Breaking the Tongue by Vyvyane Loh
37.
Slovenia:
Alamut
by Vladimir Bartol, 1958
Note: Bartol was born in Trieste (now Italy) and Alamut is a notable piece of Slovene literature.
Alamutย takes place in 11th Century Persia, in the fortress of Alamut, where self-proclaimed prophet Hasan ibn Sabbah is setting up his mad but brilliant plan to rule the region with a handful elite fighters who are to become his “living daggers.” By creating a virtual paradise at Alamut, filled with beautiful women, lush gardens, wine and hashish, Sabbah is able to convince his young fighters that they can reach paradise if they follow his commands.
Read it already?
Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
38.
Sri Lanka:
Island of a Thousand Mirrors
by Nayomi Munaweera, 2012
Before violence tore apart the tapestry of Sri Lanka and turned its pristine beaches red, there were two families. Yasodhara tells the story of her own Sinhala family, rich in love, with everything they could ask for. As a child in idyllic Colombo, Yasodhara’s and her siblings’ lives are shaped by social hierarchies, their parents’ ambitions, teenage love and, subtly, the differences between the Tamil and Sinhala peopleโbut this peace is shattered by the tragedies of war. Yasodhara’s family escapes to Los Angeles. But Yasodhara’s life has already become intertwined with a young Tamil girl’sโฆ
Saraswathie is living in the active war zone of Sri Lanka, and hopes to become a teacher. But her dreams for the future are abruptly stamped out when she is arrested by a group of Sinhala soldiers and pulled into the very heart of the conflict that she has tried so hard to avoid โ a conflict that, eventually, will connect her and Yasodhara in unexpected ways.
Read it already?
Cinnamon Gardens by Shyam Selvadurai
39.
Sudan:
What Is The What
byย Dave Eggers, 2006
What Is the Whatย is the epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children โthe so-called Lost Boysโwas forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom. When he finally is resettled in the United States, he finds a life full of promise, but also heartache and myriad new challenges.
Read it already?
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
40.
Switzerland:
Hotel Du Lac
byย Anita Brookner, 1984
In the novel that won her the Booker Prize and established her international reputation, Anita Brookner finds a new vocabulary for framing the eternal question “Why love?” It tells the story of Edith Hope, who writes romance novels under a pseudonym. When her life begins to resemble the plots of her own novels, however, Edith flees to Switzerland, where the quiet luxury of the Hotel du Lac promises to restore her to her senses.
But instead of peace and rest, Edith finds herself sequestered at the hotel with an assortment of love’s casualties and exiles. She also attracts the attention of a worldly man determined to release her unused capacity for mischief and pleasure. Beautifully observed, witheringly funny,ย Hotel du Lacย is Brookner at her most stylish and potently subversive.
Read it already?
The Magic Mountain byย Thomas Mann
41.
Syria:
In Praise of Hatred
byย Khaled Khalifa, 2006
In 1980s Syria,ย a young Muslim girl lives a secluded life behind the veil in the vast and perfumed house of her grandparents. Her three auntsโthe pious Maryam, the liberalย Safaa, and the free-spirited Marwaโraise her with the aid of their ever-devoted blind servant.ย Soon the high walls of the family home are no longer able to protect the girl from the social and politicalย chaos outside. Witnessing the ruling dictatorship’s bloody campaign against theย Muslim Brotherhood, she is filled with hatred for the regime and becomes increasingly radical. In the footsteps of her beloved uncle, Bakr, she launches herself into a fight for her religion, her country, and ultimately, for her own future.ย Against the backdrop of real-life events,ย Inย Praise of Hatredย is aย stirring, layered story that echoes the violenceย currently plaguing the Middleย East.
Read it already?
The Dark Side of Loveย byย Rafik Schami
42.
Taiwan:
A Thousand Moons on a Thousand Rivers
byย Li-Hung Hsiao, 1981
At once a bittersweet romance and a vividly detailed portrait of life in a southern Taiwanese coastal town in the 1970s,ย A Thousand Moons on a Thousand Riversย captures the intimacy of agricultural life in the midst of an increasingly industrialized society. At the heart of the story is Zhenguan, a sensitive young woman whose coming of age is influenced by new experiences in the city, the wisdom of her elders, and her strong, unique identity. In Zhenguan’s journey of first love, suffering, disillusionment, and–ultimately–zenlike triumph, Hsiao Li-hung celebrates the values and traditions that have sustained and nurtured life in Taiwan through the centuries.
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Green Island by Shawna Yang Ryan
43.
Tanzania:
The Magic of Saida
byย M. G. Vassanji, 2012
The Magic of Saidaย tells the haunting story of Kamal, a successful Canadian doctor who, in middle age and after decades in North America, decides to return to his homeland of East Africa to find his childhood sweetheart, Saida. Kamal’s journey is motivated by a combination of guilt, hope, and the desire to unravel the mysteries of his childhood–mysteries compounded by the fact that Kamal is the son of an absent Indian father from a well-to-do family and a Swahili African mother of slave ancestry. Through a series of flashbacks, we watch Kamal’s early years in the ancient coastal town of Kilwa, where he grows up in a world of poverty but also of poetry, sustained by his friendship with the magical Saida.
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The Book of Secrets by M. G. Vassanji
44.
Trinidad and Tobago:
A House For Mr Biswas
byย V.S. Naipaul, 1999
In his forty-six short years, Mr. Mohun Biswas has been fighting against destiny to achieve some semblance of independence, only to face a lifetime of calamity. Shuttled from one residence to another after the drowning death of his father, for which he is inadvertently responsible, Mr. Biswas yearns for a place he can call home. But when he marries into the domineering Tulsi family on whom he indignantly becomes dependent, Mr. Biswas embarks on an arduousโand endlessโstruggle to weaken their hold over him and purchase a house of his own. A heartrending, dark comedy of manners,ย A House for Mr. Biswasย masterfully evokes a manโs quest for autonomy against an emblematic post-colonial canvas.
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The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey
45.
Tunisia:
The Pillar of Salt
byย Albert Memmi, 1953
The Pillar of Salt the semi-autobiographical novel about a young boy growing up in French colonized Tunisia. To gain access to privileged French society, he must reject his many identities โ Jew, Arab, and African. But, on the eve of World War II, he is forced to come to terms with his loyalties and his past.
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Behind Closed Doors: Women’s Oral Narratives in Tunis by Monia Hejaiej
46.
Uganda:
Kintu
byย Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, 2014
Ugandaโs history reimagined through the cursed bloodline of the Kintu clan in an award-winning debut. In 1750, Kintu Kidda unleashes a curse that will plague his family for generations. In this ambitious tale of a clan and of a nation, Makumbi weaves together the stories of Kintuโs descendants as they seek to break from the burden of their shared past and reconcile the inheritance of tradition and the modern world that is their future.
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Abyssinian Chronicles by Moses Isegawa
47.
Ukraine:
Everything Is Illuminated
by Jonathan Safran Foer, 2002
A young man arrives in the Ukraine, clutching in his hand a tattered photograph. He is searching for the woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Unfortunately, however, he is aided in his quest by Alex, a translator with an uncanny ability to mangle English into new forms; a ‘blind’ old man haunted by memories of the war; and an undersexed guide dog named Sammy Davis, Jr, Jr. What they are looking for seems elusive – a truth hidden behind veils of time, language and the horrors of war. What they find turns all their worlds upside down…
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The Museum of Abandoned Secrets byย Oksana Zabuzhko
48.
United Arab Emirates:
The Sand Fish
byย Maha Gargash,ย 1999
A novel of Dubai,ย The Sand Fish by Maha Gargash offers readers a fascinating glimpse into another corner of the world. Set in the 1950s in what is now the United Arab Emirates,ย The Sand Fish tells the poignant and powerful story of a rebellious young woman trapped in a repressive societyโas richly atmospheric a look at Middle Eastern life and culture asย The Kite Runnerย by Khaled Hosseini and Alaa Al Aswanyโsย The Yacoubian Building.
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Temporary People by Deepak Unnikrishnan
49.
Uruguay:
The Invisible Mountain
byย Carolina De Robertis,ย 2009
From Perรณn’s glittering Buenos Aires to the rustic hills of Rio de Janeiro, from the haven of a Montevideo butchershop to U.S. embassy halls, The Invisible Mountain celebrates a nationโs spirit, the will to survive in the most desperate of circumstances, and the fierce and complex connections between mother and daughter.
On the first day of the century, a small town gathers to witness a miracle and unravel its portents: the mysterious reappearance of a lost infant, Pajarita. Later, as a young woman in the capital cityโMontevideo, brimming with growth and promiseโPajarita begins a lineage of independent women. Her daughter Eva, intent on becoming a poet, overcomes an early, shattering betrayal to embark on a most unconventional path toward personal and artistic fulfillment. And Evaโs daughter Salomรฉ, awakening to both her sensuality and political convictions amidst the violent turmoil of the late 1960s, finds herself dangerously attracted to a cadre of urban guerilla rebels.
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The Tree of Red Stars by Tessa Bridal
50.
Vanuatu:
Things Bright and Beautiful
by Anbara Salam, 2018
Note: Salamย spent six months working on a small South Pacific island, and her experiences there served as the inspiration for this novel. The novel is set in New Hebrides, now Vanuatu.ย
A lyrical and suspenseful debut novel from an exciting and darkly comic new voice in literary fiction. Mission House was not built for three people. Especially when one of them won’t stop humming. 1954, the South Pacific islands. When Beatriz Hanlon agreed to accompany her missionary husband Max to a remote island, she knew there would be challenges. But it isn’t just the heat and the damp and the dirt. There are more insects than she could ever have imagined, and the islanders are strangely hostile. And then there are the awful noises coming from the church at night.
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The Shark God byย Charles Montgomery
51.
Venezuela:
Keepers of the House
by Lisa St. Aubin de Terรกn, 1982
Lydia, an Englishwoman, marries Diego, and they return to La Bebella, a dilapidated mansion on a neglected estate upon which years of drought and disease have taken their toll. Only Benito, her husband’s retainer, remains and when her husband becomes depressed and a virtual recluse, Lydia has to take on the management of the estate. Benito recounts to her the past history of the family and its gradual decline and it is this history and the characters concerned which forms the bulk of the narrative.
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Doรฑa Bรกrbara byย Rรณmulo Gallegos
52.
Zimbabwe:
We Need New Names
by NoViolet Bulawayo, 2013
An exciting literary debut: the unflinching and powerful story of a young girl’s journey out of Zimbabwe and to America. Darling is only ten years old, and yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo’s belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by paramilitary policemen, before the school closed, before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad.
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Nervous Conditions byย Tsitsi Dangarembga
What do you think of this world reading challenge?
I’m curious, how many of these books have you read? Will you try the world reading challenge? Do you have a great book (or country) Iโve missed? Iโd love to hear more about your ideas for this world reading challenge in the comments below!
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40 comments
Hi! I can’t find a place to sign in. I already joined last year and have been enjoying the World Reading Challenge, but when I try to download the new one, I just get a sign-up link (and then it tells me “this email is already in use”) and not a sign-in link. Am I missing something? I thought I looked everywhere.
Hi Margaret! So glad to hear you’ve been enjoying last years challenge! Iโm sorry youโre having trouble accessing the resource library. When you first signed up, the welcome email included your login details for the resource library โ which is home to all the printable lists! Iโve sent you a follow up email with your login details too. Wishing you a wonderful year of reading ahead! ๐
I am in the same boat! Help me sign in as well!!
Hi Susan, thanks for your email – I’ve followed up with your login details! ๐
Hi I can’t sign in either. Thanks
Hi Kim! Just found an automation issue that is happening this week from my end, my apologies! I’ve followed up with an email and all the details for you. Thanks so much for letting me know about the problem! ๐
Oh Oh! I think that unfortunately, I am in the same situation… Would you be so kind as to send me the info? I enjoy printing the copy and having it with me just in case I find myself in the bookstore. Thanks in advance.
Hi Christelle, no worries at all. Have just sent you an email with your login details! ๐
Dear Ash,
It is the same with me. I am unable to get access to free resources and it says I am told I am already subscribed.
I am excited to have the list this year.
Hi Mat! Thanks for reaching out, glad to hear you might be following along this year! Have just re-sent your login details through. ๐
I am in the same situation and cannot download the list. Thanks.
Hi Marcia! You can access the resource library using the details you received via email when you first subscribed. I’ve just followed up with you via email! ๐
Sorry to be a bother, but I too am unable to print the list. May you please email me my credentials.
Hi Saudi, no problem at all! Have emailed your login details through. ๐
Hi! I can’t seem to find the password for the printable either. Can you send it again? Thank you! I can’t wait to start this challenge.
Hi Hope, thanks for getting in touch! I’ve emailed your login details through to you. Please keep us posted on your progress, would love to know your thoughts as you’re reading along! ๐
This looks like a fantastic list. I travel to Africa frequently for work and am always looking for books by African authors. Iโve read a few of these, but many are new to me. I will be adding lots of these to my ยซย to be readย ยป pile!
Hi Mary! Thanks so much, I’m so glad this one might be handy! I’ve been focusing more on African literature myself; be sure to check out our lists on Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa too. There’s lots more to come! And please do let us know if you have any book recommendations, would love your expertise! ๐
Hi Mary, just wanted to give you a little update! You might be interested in this list of Books Set In Africa that I’ve finally been able to share with the world!
Me too. Where am I to use the credentials?
Hi Kate! The login details were in the email you received when you first subscribed, I’ve just followed up with them! ๐
Sadly I have not kept my original email and no longer have the password, would be very grateful if you could resend to me. I am very much looking forward to trying this new challenge. I havenโt read a single book on the list before, very keen to make a start.
Hi Fiona, no worries at all! Have just resent your login details via email. I’m so happy to hear you’ll be joining the challenge, wishing you a wonderful year of reading ahead! ๐
I cannot print the current years list! Help!
Hi Gigi! You can access the lists in the resource library using the details you received via email when you first subscribed. Iโve just followed up with your password via email. ๐
Hello! I have tried a few times to get the list by signing up and confirming my email as well as using the resources tab. This tells me to sign up again. Is there a chance I could have the printable list emailed to me? Thank you!
Hi Amber, thanks for your comment! The access details for the printable list are in the first welcome email you received. I’ve just sent you a follow up email with your login information! ๐
Hi Ash!
So, same as the other folks above. Both in the article and the resources tab it asks for my name and email and then tells me I’m already subscribed. Would love to print out the new list! Thanks!
Hi Michelle! The link and password are in the email you receive when you first confirm your subscription; sometimes it can take a little while to come through! Have just sent you a follow up email with your login information. ๐
I cannot find the way to submit a password. I would like the list for this year.
Hi Terry! I see you only recently subscribed, sometimes it takes a little while for the email to come through! You should have received it by now – have sent you a follow up email just in case you’re still having troubles. ๐
What a fantastic site you have created – I see I’ll be visiting it often!
Hi Elizabeth – thanks so much, please do! ๐
You missed Egypt! I highly recommend The Open Door by Latifa al-Zayyat. One of my all-time favorites.
Hi Sophie, thanks for your comment! Don’t worry, we didn’t miss Egypt – it was included in the first World Reading Challenge last year! Thanks so much for the great recommendation though, really hoping to put together an Egyptian reading list soon and will be sure to include it! ๐
I am very happy to have seen this list but also very sad because you have left out Turkey. Through out history we have given the world amazing writers and poets. One of whom is a Nobel Prize winner, Orhan Pamuk.
Please include Turkey in this list, The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk is a very famous book which has its actual museum. The museum was elected “Museum of the Year in Europe” in 2014.
Thank you!
Hi Zeynep, thanks so much for your comment and suggestions. We didn’t miss Turkey at all, we only include 52 countries each year and Turkey was in the very first World Reading Challenge last year! I think you’ll be happy to find the title we selected for Turkey was by Orhan Pamuk too! I visited Istanbul last month and saw the Museum of Innocence, and wrote an article about Books Set In Turkey that accompanied me on my travels. Would love any recommendations you have for additions to the list! ๐
I cannot access the free resources. I have already signed up but I can not access anything.
Hi Renee, I’ve followed up with you via email! ๐
I am unable to download the reading lists for the 2019/2020/2021 reading challenges! I subscribed (actually in 2018 and at that time I was able to download the 2018 list) but now it won’t let me download the other lists.
Hi Pam, think we’ve discussed this on another posts comments! I’m afraid these haven’t been added to the resource library yet; it’s something I’ve been meaning to do for years. I’ve moved it up my to-do list and will hopefully get these done soon!