Inspired by Ann Morgan’s monumental “A Year of Reading the World“, I’ve challenged myself to read at least one book from every country in the world. It’s been a slow project so far, but I love finding new, diverse voices and challenging myself to read beyond my comfort zone. Half the fun has been researching books from each country – some are hard to find! I’ll be sharing what I’ve read below, and I’d love to hear your favourites or suggestions!
READ THE WORLD PROGRESS: 38/198
Argentina – Mouthful of Birds, Samanta Schweblin; Fever Dream, Samanta Schweblin; The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana EnrΓ¬quez
Australia – The Monkey’s Mask, Dorothy Porter
Belarus – Chernobyl Prayer, Sveltana Alexievich
Canada – The Erratics, Vickie Laveau-Harvie, The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood; Essex County, Jeff Lemire
China – The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu
Columbia – One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Cuba – Jazz Owls, Magarita Engle
Denmark – The Employees, Olga Ravn
Dominica – Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
France – Old Man Goriot, Honore de Balzac
Ghana – Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi
Haiti – An Untamed State, Roxane Gay
Iceland – Moonstone, Sjon
India – Burnt Sugar, Avni Doshi; Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
Iran – The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, Shookefeh Azar
Iraq – The Beekeeper of Sinjar, Dunya Mikhail
Ireland – The Wonder, Emma Donoghue; Beautiful World, Where Are You? Sally Rooney; Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
Italy – Invisible Cities & If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller, Italo Calvino
Jamaica – A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James
Japan – The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles/ Kafka On The Shore/ Underground etc., Haruki Murakami; All She Was Worth, Mizuki Miyabe; Heaven, Mieko Kawakami
Mexico – The Transmigration of Bodies, Yuri Herrera; Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel
Morroco – Tales of a Severed Head, Rachida Madani
The Netherlands – The Discomfort of Evening, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld; The Dinner, Herman Koch
New Zealand – The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton
Nigeria – My Sister, the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithewaite; Song for Night, Chris Abani
North Korea – The Accusation, Bandi
Oman – Celestial Bodies, Jokha Alharthi
Pakistan – Exit West, Moshin Hamid
Palestine – Minor Detail, Adania Shibli
Portugal – Blindness, Jose Saramego
Romania – The Fox Was Ever the Hunter, Herta Muller
South Africa – Disgrace, JM Coetzee
South Korea – The Vegetarian/ Human Acts, Han Kang
Sri Lanka – Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist, Sunil Yapa
Turkey – The Idiot, Elif Batuman
United Kingdom – How to be Both/ Autumn, Ali Smith; Elmet, Fiona Mozely
United States of America – Beloved, Toni Morrison; Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko; The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver; Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders; Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson…
boats against the current 