I have decided on my challenge for 2012. It will be world fiction. Each month, I will read a book written by an author who is a native of a country whose literature I’ve not read before. Unfortunately, these will have to be books published in English. While I might be able to puzzle my way through novels written in some languages, that would a) take me more than a month per book, and b) limit my choices to fiction from countries many of whom I’ve already read…
To date, I’ve read fiction from the following countries:
- Australia
- Canada
- Chile
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Egypt
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- India
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Lebanon
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Palestine
- Poland
- Russia
- South Africa
- Sudan
- Sweden
- UAE
- UK
- US
- Yemen
I’m now looking for suggestions for novels from authors from countries not listed above. Any genre. But not books that are too huge. Fortunately, I’ve already at least one Chilean author, so while I do own a copy of Robert Bolaño’s 2666, I can read it at my leisure and not for this challenge.
So, get suggesting away. It would be nice if the books were readily available in the UK – either new or second-hand. And I’d probably sooner they weren’t from Anglophone countries. I’d also like a diverse list, covering as much of the globe as possible.
It Doesn't Have To Be Right... 
December 15, 2011 at 9:47 am
Orhan Pamuk, “My Name is Red” (Turkish)
Dubravka Ugrešić, “Baba Yaga Laid an Egg” (Croatian)
December 15, 2011 at 11:05 am
I’d recommend anything by Zoran Zivkovic (Serbia). PS have a whole bunch of his stuff.
December 15, 2011 at 11:12 am
And happily I have one of his books on my TBR…
December 15, 2011 at 5:03 pm
In addition to the ones above, how about:
Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina) – but those are collections, so…
Julio Cortázar, Hopscotch
Carlos Fuentes (Mexico) – Too many excellent possibilities there to name just one or two
Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru) – The War of the End of the World
Gabriel García Márquez, (Colombia) One Hundred Years of Solitude (or anything else by him, maybe Love and Other Demons, just to go against the grain)
Javier Marías (Spain) – Your Face Tomorrow trilogy. Spy novels like I’ve never seen them written before, along with philosophical elements and other well-integrated literary elements.
Cao Xueqin (China) – The Story of the Stone (five volumes). Written in the 18th century, so it’s after the Three Kingdoms era but before massive European involvement.
Alejo Carpentier (Cuba) – The Lost Steps. Music and magical realism a half-generation before El Boom.
Ernesto Cardenal (Nicaragua) – “Prayer for Marilyn Monroe” – one of the most moving and damning poems of the 20th century. I’d recommend any of his poetry collections, but I’m uncertain what their titles are in English.
Jorge Amado (Brazil) – Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. One living, one dead, each mingling to please the wife.
Ben Okri (Nigeria) – The Famished Road – Brilliant.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Kenya) – Petals of Blood; Wizard of Crow – can’t decide which of the two I’d recommend most, so I’ll list both.
Sadegh Hedayat (Iran), The Blind Owl – Hard to classify. Contains elements of the weird along with references to mid-20th century Iranian culture.
Hopefully some or all of these will give you pleasurable reading in 2012 😀
December 15, 2011 at 10:10 pm
Austria
Ingeborg Bachmann : Malina, The Book of Franza, Three Paths to the Lake
Thomas Bernhard: Gargoyles, Old Masters, Correction, etc.
Marlen Haushofer: The Wall The Attic We Murdered Stella
Hermann Broch: The Death of Vergil
Rainer Maria Rilke: The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
Lybia
Ibrahim al-Koni: Stone of Blood
Mozambique
Luis Bernardo Honwana: We Killed Mangy Dog and Other Stories
Portugal
Eca de Queiroz: The Crime of father Amaro
Fernando Pessoa: The Book of the Disquiet
Josè Saramago: Blindness, etc.
António Lobo Antunes : Good Evening from the things from here below , etc.
Brazil
J. M. Machado de Assis: Bras Cubas, Quincas Borba, Don Casmurro
Mario de Andrade: Macunaima
Senegal
Ousmane Sembene: God’s Bits of Wood
Morocco
Tahar Ben Jalloun : Creature of Sand
Somalia
Nuruddin Farah: Sardines
Ivory Coast
Ahmadou Kouruma: Waiting for the vote of the wild animals
Spain
Enrique Vila-Matas: Doctor Pasavento, Bartleby and Co.
Ana Maria Matute: Forgotten King Gudù
Spain (Catalunya)
Mercè Rodoreda: The Time of The Doves, Death in Spring
Kyrgyzstan
Chinghiz Aitmatov: The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years
Nigeria
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart etc.
Denmark
Karin Michaëlis: The Dangerous Age
Karen Blixen: Ehrengard and Anecdotes of Destiny
Algeria
Assia Djebar: Women of Algiers in their Apartment
Belgium
Jean Ray: Malpertuis
Switzerland
Robert Walser: Jakob von Gunten
Agota Kristof:The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels
Hungary
Magda Szabo: The Door
Frigyes Karinthy: Voyage to Faremido and Capillaria
Sandor Marai: Embers
Gyula Krudy: The Adventures of Sinbad
Antal Szerb: The Pendragon Legend
Haiti
Émile Ollivier: Landscape of the Blind
Martinique
Patrick Chamoiseau: Solibo the Magnificent
Guyana
Wilson Harris: Palace of the Peacock
Cuba
Josè Lezama Lima: Paradiso
Guillermo Cabrera Infante: Three Trapped Tigers
Paraguay
Augusto Roa Bastos: I,the Supreme
Well, there are a couple of long ones, I’m afraid. I’m not good at bullet-point descriptions, but you can go to Google and Wikipedia and ask a bit more if something piques your interest. Sometimes the actual English title may be different, I’m going by the most plausible translation.
December 16, 2011 at 5:16 pm
Ditto on the Voyages to Faremido/Capillaria – I have a copy of it on my to-read shelves but I’m hard pressed to get to get it.
Somtow Sucharitkhul was born in Thailand but raised in England. He’s written some 80s novels by the names of Mallworld, Starship & Haiku, as well as the “Inquestor” series starting with The Dawning Shadow: Light on the Sound.
December 17, 2011 at 10:49 pm
Cervantes, Homer, Georges Simenon. I think I’ve arrived at this party far too late.
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