While I’m rounding up my 2021 reading, I wanted to take a look at how I did with my goal of reading more books written or set in in different countries of the world (see my Around the World page for full details of what I’ve read so far). I was pleased to see that I managed quite a few this year, although non-European countries were weakly represented. I’d like to read more of those next year.
I’m a bit loose in deciding what books count for this project, including authors who have lived in or thoroughly researched a country, as well as those who were born there and speak the native language. Mostly I try to focus on books that are mainly set in a single country, with a few exceptions for interesting cross-cultural or immigrant narratives. And I count multiple books from the same country. I find this gives different perspectives that are fascinating. I also count regions that are not officially separate countries, like Wales and Crete, when historically and geographically they do have a separate identity. And I included a historical novel set in ancient Italy (Pompeii), because the setting was so wonderfully imagined.
Have you read any of these, or would you like to? What would you recommend for an around the world reading tour?
- Japan/Canada – A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki – January
- Switzerland – The Swiss Summer by Stella Gibbons – February
- India / US – Missed Translations by Sopan Deb – March
- Switzerland – Swiss Watching by Diccon Bewes – May
- Italy – The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper – June
- Crete – Daughters of the Labyrinth by Ruth Padel – July
- Germany – Die Kleine Hexe by Ofried Preussler – July
- Algeria – L’étranger by Albert Camus – July
- Iran – Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi – August
- Wales – A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond – October
- Switzerland – In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim – October
- Korea – A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park – December
- Algeria – The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud – December
- Korea – Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim – December
Great to see you visited so many places in your reading, I don’t think I’ve read any of these, though many are familiar.
From my favourites this year, I can recommend for Uganda The First Woman by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, for Cameroon How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue and for France Winter Flowers by Angelique Villeneuve.
A favourite author of mine is Maryse Condé from Guadeloupe, her Tales From the Heart, Stories From Childhood is excellent or her novel Crossing the Mangrove.
Wonderful, thanks so much for these suggestions.
Ooh, well done! I’ve done the Ozeki, none of the others. But I have covered this year (so far)
UK
US
World
US/UK
Nigeria/UK
Iceland
Trinidad
Syria/UK
Singapore
Germany/UK
Fantasy
Ireland
The Gambia
India
Iceland/Algeria
Iran/UK
Finland/UK
Ghana
Australia/UK
Europe
Nepal/Tibet/Pakistan/China
Canada
Norway/India
Malawi
Australia
World/Fantasy
which I’m quite pleased with (please excuse the pasted list from my spreadsheet, I couldn’t face putting all the commas in!)
Wow, fantastic, I can only aspire to such a list!
Wow, looks great! I feel like I didn’t do too well this year, but I haven’t counted up yet. I have a big pile of books, though…
I’m sure you do Jean, you are always reading something interesting. I imagine when you look at what you read this year you’ll find it’s been more extensive than you think.
Congratulations! I did that a few years ago, and so enjoyed it. I have 55 countries listed on my page here: https://wordsandpeace.com/2012/01/04/around-the-world-in-52-books/ But you probably already have most of these countries
I’m missing a lot, especially in South and Central America and Africa. So it will be fun to trawl your list for more ideas (I also still have the copy of The World Between Two Covers from your giveaway, I have to get into that soon too!)