Around the World for a Good Book

Around twenty 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. Botswana: Call and Response by Gothataone Moeng
14. Brazil: Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado
15. Cambodia: Music of the Ghosts by Vaddey Ratner
16. Cameroon: The Story of the Madman : A Novel by Mongo Beti
17. Canada: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
18. Catalonia: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
19. Cayman Islands: The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins
20. Chile: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
21. Colombia: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
22. Costa Rica: Assault on Paradise by Tatiana Lobo
23. Côte d’Ivoire: Aya by Marguerite Abouet
24. Croatia: Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugrešić
25. Czech Republic: The Joke by Milan Kundera
26. Denmark: The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen
27. Djibouti: In the United States of Africa by Abdourahman A. Waberi
28. Dominican Republic: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
29. Ecuador: Bruna and Her Sisters in the Sleeping City by Yanez Cossio
30. England: Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
31. Egypt: I Think of You by Ahdaf Soueif
32. Ethiopia: Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengiste
33. Faroe Islands: Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion by Johan Harstad
34. Fiji: The Anniversary Present by Larry Thomas
35. Finland: Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna
36. France: The Castle of Whispers by Carole Martinez
37. French Polynesia: Breadfruit by Célestine Hitiura Vaite
38. Georgia: Pilgrimage to Dzhvari by Valeria Alfeyeva
39. Ghana: Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey
40. Germany: Billiards at Half-Past Nine by Heinrich Böll
41. Greece: Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
42. Greenland: Crimson by Niviaq Korneliussen
43. Guam: No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies by Julian Aguon
44. Haiti: Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
45. Honduras: Senselessness by Hoacio Castellanos Moya
46. Hungary: The Last Wolf & Herman : The Game Warden & the Death of a Craft by László Krasznahorkai
47. Iceland: The Blue Tower by Thorarinn Eldjarn
48. India: The God of Small Things by Arundhuti Roy
49. Indonesia: Beauty is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan
50. Iran: Persepolis & Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi
51. Iraq: A Sky So Close by Betool Khedairi
52. Ireland: Patrick Pearse Motel by Hugh Leonard
53. Israel: Suddenly, a Knock on the Door by Etgar Keret
54. Italy: Conclave by Roberto Pazzi
55. Jamaica: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
56. Japan: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
57. Kiribati: The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost
58. Kyrgyzstan: The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov
59. Lebanon: The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
60. Liberia: She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore
61. Lithuania: Stalemate by Icchokas Meras
62. Malaysia: Black Water Sister by Zen Cho
63. Mexico: The Law of Love by Laura Esquivel
64. Nepal: Arresting God in Kathmandu by Samrat Upadhyay
65. Netherlands: The Book of Everything by Guus Kuijer (NOTE: I read many Dutch books in preparation for a trip to Amsterdam in 2010)
66. New Zealand: Dogside Story by Patricia Grace
67. Nigeria: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
68. Norway: The Cold Song by Linn Ullmann
69. Pakistan: Salt & Saffron by Kamilla Shamsie
70. Palestine: Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury
71. Peru: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
72. Poland: Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
73. Portugal: Jerusalem by Gonçalo Tavares
74. Qatar: What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad
75. Romania: Little Fingers by Filip Florian
76. Saint Lucia: Prisnms by Garth St. Omer
77. Scotland: The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway
78. Serbia: The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
79. Senegal: Doomi Golo: The Hidden Notebooks by Boubacar Boris Diop
80. Singapore: The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang
81. Somalia: Maps by Nuruddin Farah
82. South Africa:  Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
83. South Korea: Silver Stallion by  Ahn Junghyo
84. Spain:  The Man of Feeling by Javier Marías
85. Sri Lanka: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
86. Sweden: Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
87. Switzerland: To the Back of Beyond by Peter Stamm
88. Syria: Death Is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa
89. Tajikistan: The City Where Dreams Come True by Gulsifat Shahidi
90. Thailand: The Happiness of Kati by Ngarmpun (Jane) Vejjajiva
91. Togo: An African in Greenland by Tété -Michel Kpmoassie
92. Trinidad and Tobago: The Golden Child by Claire Adam
93. Turkey: Snow by Orhan Pamuk
94. Uganda: Snakepit by Moses Isegawa
95. United States Virgin Islands: Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique
96. Uruguay: The Invisible Mountain by Carolina de Robertis
97. Vatican City: When in Rome by Robert J. Hutchinson
98. Vietnam:  On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous  by Ocean Vuong
99. Wales: How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
100. Zambia: The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
101. 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.