THE WORLD IN BOOKS
Each day we receive a lot of questions: Who is tonight’s speaker? Where can I find The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? And, of course -- where are the stairs?
But some of our favorite requests come from the travelers (armchair or otherwise: the questions begin “I am going to...” or “I want to learn more about...” and conclude “I want to read something set there.” We love this type of literary matchmaking, so we have compiled a list of our favorite novels from around the world.
This list is in no way comprehensive or meant to be the final word. It is intended to spark conversation and exploration. But, if you’re journeying to Dublin, Denmark, or Duluth; intrigued by Kyoto or Kuwait; or want to discover Accra or Azerbaijan, browse our list. Visit the store to see our beautiful map display. And most importantly, come talk with us. Keep asking us those questions. We also love hearing your suggestions. We look forward to traveling the globe and sharing literature with you!
-- Lila Stiff, Sarah Baline & Elizabeth Sher
Click the title links to read more about these books and to buy them online.
THE PACIFIC
AUSTRALIA
The Lieutenant, Kate GrenvilleThe Slap, Christos Tsiolkas
MALAYSIA
Evening is the Whole Day, Preeta Samarasan
NEW ZEALAND
The Bone People, Keri Hulme
THE PHILIPPINES
Ilustrado, Miguel Syjuco
TASMANIA
Wanting, Richard Flanagan
ASIA
South Asia
AFGHANISTAN
The Wasted Vigil, Nadeem AslamThe Swallows of Kabul, Yasmina Khadra
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
BANGLADESH
A Golden Age, Tahmima Anam
INDIA
The Death of Vishnu, Manil SuriThe White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
Family Matters, Rohinton Mistry
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
Toss of a Lemon, Padma Viswanathan
NEPAL
The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai
PAKISTAN
The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin HamidIn Other Rooms, Other Wonders, Daniyal Mueenuddin
SRI LANKA
Anil’s Ghost, Michael Ondaatje
RUSSIA & CENTRAL ASIA
AZERBAIJAN
Ali & Nino, Kurban Said
THE CAUCASUS
Hadji Murad, Leo Tolstoy
MONGOLIA
Shadow Walker, Michael Walters
RUSSIA
Collected Stories of Ivan Bunin, Ivan Bunin
Moscow
In the First Circle, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
Leningrad (St.Petersburg)
City of Thieves, David Benioff
Siberia
Life and Fate, Vasily Grossman
The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight, Gina Oschner
TAJIKISTAN
Soul, Andrei Platonov
UZBEKISTAN
The Railway, Hamid Ismailov
THE MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA
EGYPT
Taxi, Khaled Al Khamissi
IRAN
Censoring an Iranian Love Story, Shahriar Mandanipour
IRAQ
I’jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody, Sinan Antoon
ISRAEL
A Tale of Love and Darkness, Amos Oz
KUWAIT
A Map of Home, Randa Jarrar
LEBANON
The Hakawati, Rabih Alameddine
MOROCCO
Secret Son, Laila Lalami
PALESTINE
Gate of the Sun, Elias Khoury
SAUDI ARABIA
Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, Hilary MantelGirls of Riyadh, Rajaa Alsanea
TUNISIA
Pillar of Salt, Albert Memmi
TURKEY
The Towers of Trebizond, Rose MacaulayThe Museum of Innocence, Orhan Pamuk
The Lovers, Vendela Vida
AFRICA
BOTSWANA
A Change of Climate, Hilary Mantel
ETHIOPIA
Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, Maaza MengisteCutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
GHANA
Eddie Signwriter, Adam Schwartzman
KENYA
Wizard of the Crow, Ngugi wa Thiong’oThe Constant Gardener, John LeCarré
NIGERIA
Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieI Do Not Come to You By Chance, Daobi Tricia Nwaubani
RWANDA
Baking Cakes in Kigali, Gaile Parkin
SENEGAL
So Long A Letter, Mariama Ba
SOUTH AFRICA
Agaat, Marlene van NiekerkThe Power of One, Bryce Courtenay
Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee
SUDAN
Season of Migration to the North, Tayeb SalihWhat is the What, Dave Eggers
ZIMBABWE
The Boy Next Door, Irene Sabatini
CANADA
MANITOBA
A Complicated Kindness, Miriam Toews
NEWFOUNDLAND
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, Wayne JohnstonThe Shipping News, Annie Proulx
NOVA SCOTIA
What is Left the Daughter, Howard Norman
ONTARIO
The Deptford Trilogy, Robertson Davies
TORONTO
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
VANCOUVER
Obasan, Joy Kogawa
THE UNITED STATES
EAST COAST
A Meaningful Life, L.J. Davis
Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, Dinaw Mengestu
American Rust, Philipp Meyer
NEW ENGLAND
Caucasia, Danzy Senna
The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
The Beans of Egypt, Maine, Carolyn Chute
MIDWEST
Everything, Kevin Canty
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski
Stoner, John Williams
WEST COAST & PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Play It As It Lays, Joan Didion
The Living, Annie Dillard
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, Heidi Durrow
The Cookbook Collector, Allegra Goodman
Snow Falling on Cedars,David Guterson
What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going, Damion Searls
ALASKA
Correcting the Landscape, Marjorie Kowalski Cole
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon
THE SOUTH
Bastard Out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison
Citrus County, John Brandon
All the Living, C.E. Morgan
The Moviegoer, Walker Percy
TEXAS & THE SOUTHWEST
Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
Nothing Happened and Then It Did, Jake Silverstein
MEXICO, THE CARIBBEAN & SOUTH AMERICA
MEXICO
Into the Beautiful North, Luis Alberto UrreaThe Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
2666, Roberto Bolaño
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez
The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz
HAITI
Krik? Krak!, Edwidge Danticat
CUBA
Telex from Cuba, Rachel Kushner
PERU
Lima Nights, Marie Arana
BRAZIL
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Jorge AmadoThe Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector
ARGENTINA
The Ministry of Special Cases, Nathan EnglanderStory of the Night, Colm Toibin
COLOMBIA
The Informers, Juan Gabriel Vasquez
CHILE
Daughter of Fortune, Isabel AllendeBy Night in Chile, Roberto Bolaño
EUROPE
BARCELONA
The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel’s Game, Carlos Ruiz Zafón
BERLIN
Every Man Dies Alone, Hans FalladaBerlin Noir, Philip Kerr
BUDAPEST
The Invisible Bridge, Julie Orringer
CATALONIA
The Spanish Bow, Andromeda Romano-Lax
IRELAND
Christine Falls, Benjamin BlackThe Last September, Elizabeth Bowen
FLORENCE
The Doorbells of Florence, Andrew Losowsky
LISBON
Night Train To Lisbon, Pascal Mercier
LONDON
Atonement, Ian McEwanWhite Teeth, Zadie Smith
MADRID
Sepharad, Antonio Muñoz Molina
THE NETHERLANDS
In The Image, Dara HornThe Assault, Harry Mulisch
PARIS
Paris Stories, Mavis GallantThe Dud Avocado, Elaine Dundy
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
POLAND
Market Day, James Sturm
PRAGUE
Vita Nuova, Bohumil HrabalThe Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
ROMANIA
In the Land of Green Plums, Herta Muller
ROME
The Imperfectionists, Tom Rachman
SCOTLAND
The House on Fortune Street, Margot Livesey
SARAJEVO
The Lazarus Project, Aleksander Hemon
UKRAINE
Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
VIENNA
The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil