Around the World for a Good Book

A few years ago, probably not too long after my country began an ill-conceived invasion of Iraq, I decided that I should do something to learn more about people in other countries. Since I’m a compulsive reader the natural solution was to learn about people and culture through their literature. So I started the Around the World for a Good Book challenge to read a book by an author from every country in the world.

I set a few guidelines for the effort:

1. Due to my monolingualism the book would have to be written or translated into English (one of the great barriers to finding books from some countries)
2. The book I read should preferably be fiction – a novel or short stories. Poetry is okay as well and a non-fiction work by a native author as last resort.
3. Failing to find any book that meets the above two requirements I would read a history or travel book about the country in question, again preferably by a native author.

Trying to read a book from every country in the world raises a lot of questions. How many countries are there in the world anyhow? The US State Department Recognizes 191 independent states, the United Nations has 192 member states, and FIFA ranks 201 football-playing entities.  Wikipedia has a list of  245 sovereign states!

Does the United Kingdom count as one nation or four? Is there such a thing as a native of the Holy See? And what about Catalonians, Palestinians, Tibetans, and other peoples who do not have country  to call their own? Fortunately, at my pace of reading I have a lot of time to work on these questions.

Here are the books I’ve read already with links to reviews:

1. Afghanistan: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
2. Algeria: Cousin K by Yasmina Khadra
3. Angola: A General Theory of Oblivion by Jose Eduardo Agualusa
4. Antarctica: Terra Incognita by Sara Wheeler
5. Bangladesh: The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam
6. Antigua and Barbuda: Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid
7. Argentina: Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar
8. Australia: Woman of the Inner Sea by Thomas Keneally
9. Austria: The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek
10. Belgium: Life Form by Amélie Nothomb
11. Belize: Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell
12. Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Lazarus Project by Alexsandr Hemon
13. Brazil: Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado
14. Cameroon: The Story of the Madman : A Novel by Mongo Beti
15. Canada: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
16. Catalonia: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
17. Chile: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
18. Colombia: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
19. Costa Rica: Assault on Paradise by Tatiana Lobo
20. Côte d’Ivoire: Aya by Marguerite Abouet
21. Croatia: Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugrešić
22. Czech Republic: The Joke by Milan Kundera
23. Djibouti: In the United States of Africa by Abdourahman A. Waberi
24. Dominican Republic: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
25. Ecuador: Bruna and Her Sisters in the Sleeping City by Yanez Cossio
26. England: Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
27. Egypt: I Think of You by Ahdaf Soueif
28. Ethiopia: Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengiste
29. Faroe Islands: Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion by Johan Harstad
30. Fiji: The Anniversary Present by Larry Thomas
31. Finland: Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna
32. France: The Castle of Whispers by Carole Martinez
33. French Polynesia: Breadfruit by Célestine Hitiura Vaite
34. Georgia: Pilgrimage to Dzhvari by Valeria Alfeyeva
35. Ghana: Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey
36. Germany: Billiards at Half-Past Nine by Heinrich Böll
37. Greece: Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
38. Greenland: Crimson by Niviaq Korneliussen
39. Haiti: Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
40. Honduras: Senselessness by Hoacio Castellanos Moya
41. Hungary: The Last Wolf & Herman : The Game Warden & the Death of a Craft by László Krasznahorkai
42. Iceland: The Blue Tower by Thorarinn Eldjarn
43. India: The God of Small Things by Arundhuti Roy
44. Indonesia: Beauty is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan
45. Iran: Persepolis & Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi
46. Iraq: A Sky So Close by Betool Khedairi
47. Ireland: Patrick Pearse Motel by Hugh Leonard
48. Israel: Suddenly, a Knock on the Door by Etgar Keret
49. Italy: Conclave by Roberto Pazzi
50. Jamaica: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
51. Japan: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
52. Kiribati: The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost
53. Kyrgyzstan: The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov
54. Lebanon: The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
55. Liberia: She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore
56. Lithuania: Stalemate by Icchokas Meras
57. Malaysia: Black Water Sister by Zen Cho
58. Mexico: The Law of Love by Laura Esquivel
59. Nepal: Arresting God in Kathmandu by Samrat Upadhyay
60. Netherlands: The Book of Everything by Guus Kuijer (NOTE: I read many Dutch books in preparation for a trip to Amsterdam in 2010)
61. New Zealand: Dogside Story by Patricia Grace
62. Nigeria: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
63. Norway: The Cold Song by Linn Ullmann
64. Pakistan: Salt & Saffron by Kamilla Shamsie
65. Palestine: Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury
66. Peru: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
67. Poland: Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
68. Portugal: Jerusalem by Gonçalo Tavares
69. Romania: Little Fingers by Filip Florian
70. Saint Lucia: Prisnms by Garth St. Omer
71. Scotland: The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway
72. Serbia: The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
73. Senegal: Doomi Golo: The Hidden Notebooks by Boubacar Boris Diop
74. Singapore: The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang
75. Somalia: Maps by Nuruddin Farah
76. South Africa:  Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
77. South Korea: Silver Stallion by  Ahn Junghyo
78. Spain:  The Man of Feeling by Javier Marías
79. Sweden: Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
80. Switzerland: To the Back of Beyond by Peter Stamm
81. Syria: Death Is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa
82. Thailand: The Happiness of Kati by Ngarmpun (Jane) Vejjajiva
83. Togo: An African in Greenland by Tété -Michel Kpmoassie
84. Trinidad and Tobago: The Golden Child by Claire Adam
85. Turkey: Snow by Orhan Pamuk
86. Uganda: Snakepit by Moses Isegawa
87. United States Virgin Islands: Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique
88. Uruguay: The Invisible Mountain by Carolina de Robertis
89. Vatican City: When in Rome by Robert J. Hutchinson
90. Vietnam:  On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous  by Ocean Vuong
91. Wales: How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
92. Zambia: The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
93. Zimbabwe: Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

I’m always looking for new suggestions of good books from different parts of the world.  If you know a good book that meets my guidelines, please post the title and author in the comments field.