Around the World Reading List
Full reading list from my reading-around-the-world journey of 199 countries. Countries listed alphabetically. Continents listed in the order I completed them.
Europe
Iceland: From the Mouth of the Whale / Sjon
Ireland: Picture of Dorian Gray / Oscar Wilde
UK: The Driver’s Seat / Muriel Spark
Portugal: Blindness / Jose Saramago
Spain: Tyrant Banderas / Ramón del Valle-Inclán
France: The Stranger / Albert Camus
Belgium: The Stranger Next Door / Amelia Nothomb
Netherlands: Amsterdam Stories / Nescio
Switzerland: Berlin Stories / Robert Walser
Germany: Comedy in a Minor Key / Hans Keilson
Italy: Cosmicomics / Italo Calvino
Greece: The Odyssey / Homer
Poland: The Emperor / Ryszard Kapuscinski
Austria: The Post-Office Girl / Stefan Zweig
Czech: The Trial / Franz Kafka
Denmark: Arabia Felix / Thorkild Hansen
Norway: Doll's House / Henrik Ibsen
Finland: Fair Play / Tove Jansson
Russia: The Brothers Karamazov / Fyodor Dostoevsky
Hungary: The Door / Magda Szabo
Bulgaria: Earwitness / Elias Canetti
Croatia: They Wouldn't Hurt a Fly / Slavenka Drakulić
Belarus: Voices from Chernobyl / Svetlana Alexievich
Serbia: Skylark / Dezso Kosztolanyi
Ukraine: Envy / Olesha
Montenegro: Houses / Borislav Pekic
Albania: The Successor / Ismail Kadare
Romania: The Assignment / Herta Muller
Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Question of Bruno / Aleksandar Hemon
Sweden: The Sibyl / Pär Lagerkvisk
Slovakia: In the Name of the Father and Other Stories / Balla
Andorra: Andorra Revealed / Clare Allcard
Lithuania: Road-Side Dog / Czeslaw Milosz
Moldova: The Good Life Elsewhere / Vladimir Lorchenkov
San Marino: Almost Blue / Carlo Lucarelli
Malta: Confidential Reports / Immanuel Mifsud
Macedonia: Conversation with Spinoza / Goce Smilevski
Slovenia: You Do Understand / Andrej Blatnik
Turkey: The Gaze / Elif Shafak
Luxembourg: Ralph 124C 41+ / Hugo Gernsback
Monaco: Two Plays / Armand Gatti
Liechtenstein: The State in the Third Millennium / Prince Hans-Adam
Estonia: The Man Who Spoke Snakish / Andrus Kivirähk
Kosovo: My Cat Yugoslavia / Pajtim Statovci
Vatican City: The Place Within / John Paul II
Cyprus: Gregory and Other Stories / Panos Ioannides
Latvia: High Tide / Inga Abele
South America
Bolivia: Affections / Rodrigo Hasbún
Ecuador: Poso Wells / Gabriela Alemán
Guyana: Ascent to Omai / Wilson Harris
Paraguay: I, the Supreme / Augusto Roa Bastos
Peru: Mario Vargas Llosa / Death in the Andes
Suriname: The Cost of Sugar / Cynthia McLeod
Venezuela: It Would Be Night in Caracas / Karina Sainz Borgo
Argentina: Julio Cortazar / Blow Up & Other Stories
Brazil: The Hour of the Star / Clarice Lispector
Colombia: 100 Years of Solitude / Gabriel García Márquez
Uruguay: The Crocodile / Felisberto Hernández
Chile: 2666 / Roberto Bolaño
North America
Bahamas: Running the Dusk / Christian Campbell
Barbados: How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House / Cherie Jones
Antigua and Barbuda: A Small Place / Jamaica Kincaid
Belize: Snapshots Of Belize / Leo Bradley, Zoila Ellis
Costa Rica: There Never Was a Once Upon a Time / Carmen Naranjo
Dominica: Jean Rhys / Wide Sargasso Sea
Dominican Republic: In the Time of the Butterflies / Julia Alvarez
Grenada: The Bone Readers / Jacob Ross
Haiti: After the Dance / Edwidge Danticat
Jamaica: House of Whispers / Nalo Hopkinson
Nicaragua: Death of Somoza / Claribel Alegría
Panama: The Shadow / Enrique Jaramillo Levi
Saint Kitts and Nevis: Crossing the River / Caryl Phillips
Saint Lucia: The Bounty / Derek Walcott
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: Lives: Whole and Otherwise / H. Nigel Thomas
Trinidad and Tobago: A Bend in the River / V. S. Naipaul
Canada: Oryx and Crake / Margaret Atwood
Mexico: Pedro Paramo / Juan Rulfo
Guatemala: The Beggars Knife / Rodrigo Rey Rosa
Cuba: The Kingdom of This World / Alejo Carpentier
El Salvador: Revulsion / Horatio Castellanos Moya
Honduras: Complete Works and Other Stories / Augusto Monterroso
United States of America: 101 Hamburger Jokes
Oceania
Australia: And the Ass Saw the Angel / Nick Cave
Fiji: The Fantasy Eaters / Subramani
Kiribati: A Pattern of Islands / Arthur Grimble
Marshall Islands: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter / Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner Iep Jaltok
Micronesia: My Urohs / Emelihter Kihleng
Nauru: Undesirables / Mark Isaacs
New Zealand: The Life and Loves of a She-Devil / Fay Weldon
Palau: Being a Palauan / H.G. Barnett
Papua New Guinea: Words of Paradise: Poetry of Papua New Guinea / Ulli Beier
Samoa: The Birth and Death of the Miracle Man / Albert Wendt
Solomon Islands: Raindrops / Celo Kulaghoe
Tonga: Tales of the Tikongs / Epeli Hau’ofa
Tuvalu: Where the hell is Tuvalu? / Philip Ells
Vanuatu: Sista, Stanap Strong!: A Vanuatu Women's Anthology
Cook Islands: Return to Havaiki (Fokihanga ki Havaiki) / Kauraka Kauraka
Niue: Tales of Niue Nukututaha / Zora Feilo
Asia
Palestine: Touch / Adania Shibli
Afghanistan: Earth and Ashes / Atiq Rahimi
Armenia: Three Apples Fell from the Sky / Narine Abgaryan
Azerbaijan: Days in the Caucasus / Banine
Bahrain: Yummah / Sarah A. Al Shafei
Bangladesh: Up in the Main House / Nadeem Zaman
Bhutan: Treasures of The Thunder Dragon: A Portrait of Bhutan / Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck
Brunei: Written in Black / K. H. Lim
Cambodia: The Elimination / Rithy Panh
Georgia: Vano and Niko / Erlom Akhvlediani
Indonesia: The Ten Thousand Things / Maria Dermout
Jordan: Endings / Abd al-Rahman Munif
Kazakhstan: Amanat: Women's Writing from Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan: The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years / Chingiz Aitmatov
Kuwait: The Old Woman and the River / Ismail Fahad Ismail
Laos: Mothers Beloved / Uthin Bunnyāvong
Lebanon: The Prophet / Kahlil Gibran
Malaysia: Lake Like a Mirror / Ho Sok Fong
Maldives: Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu / Abdullah Sadiq
Mongolia: The Blue Sky / Galsan Tschinag
Myanmar (formerly Burma): The Unrest-Cure and Other Stories / Saki
Nepal: Arresting God in Katmandu / Samrat Upadhyay
North Korea: The Accusation / Bandi
Oman: Celestial Bodies / Jokha Alharthi
Pakistan: Exit West / Mohsin Hamid
Philippines: Insurrecto / Gina Apostol
Qatar: The Girl Who Fell to Earth / Sophia Al-Maria
Saudi Arabia: The Tree & Other Stories / Abdallah al-Nasser
Singapore: The Rest Of Your Life And Everything That Comes With It / O Thiam Chin
Sri Lanka: Running in the Family / Michael Ondaatje
Syria: The Teeth of the Comb / Osama Alomar
Taiwan: Unsinkable: Short Stories from Taiwanese Writers / Walis Nokan
Tajikistan: My Neighborhood Sisters / Gulsifat Shakhidi
Thailand: Arid Dreams / Duanwad Pimwana
Timor-Leste: The Crossing / Luis Cardoso
Turkmenistan: Death of the Snake Catcher / Ak Welsapar
United Arab Emirates (UAE): Temporary People / Deepak Unnikrishnan
Uzbekistan: The Dead Lake / Hamid Ismailov
Vietnam: Mãn / Kim Thuy
Yemen: A Land Without Jasmine / Wajdi Al Ahdal
Japan: Wind-Up Bird Chronicle / Haruki Murakami
Iraq: No Windmills in Basra / Diaa Jubaili
China: The Invisibility Cloak / Ge Fei
South Korea: The Vegetarian / Han Kang
India: Just So Stories / Rudyard Kipling
Iran: Touba and the Meaning of Night / Shahrnush Parsipur
Israel: The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God / Etgar Keret
Africa
Algeria: The Plague / Albert Camus
Angola: General Theory of Oblivion / Jose Eduardo Agualusa
Benin: Autobiography of the Lower East Side / Rashidah Ismaili
Botswana: Born in a Second Language / Akosua Zimba Afiriyie-Hwedie
Burkina Faso: Ritual / Malidoma Patrice Somé
Burundi: Small Country / Gaël Faye
Cabo Verde: The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araujo / Germano Almeida
Cameroon: The Blunder / Mutt-Lon
Central African Republic (CAR): Co-Wives, Co-widows / Adrienne Yabouza
Chad: Told by Starlight in Chad / Joseph Brahim Seid
Comoros: A Girl Called Eel / Ali Zamir
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Tram 83 / Fiston Mwanza Mujila
Republic of the Congo: The Death of Comrade President / Alain Mabanckou
Côte d’Ivoire: In the Company of Men / Veroniqué Tadjo
Djibouti: United States of Africa / Abdourahman Waberi
Egypt: Akhenaten / Naguib Mahfouz
Equatorial Guinea: La Bastarda / Trifonia Melibea Obono
Eritrea: African Titanics / Abu Bakr Kahal
Eswatini (formerly Swaziland): A Beautiful Place to Die / Malla Nunn
Ethiopia: The Shadow King / Maaza Mengiste
Gabon: Mema / Daniel Mengara
Gambia: The Second Round / Lenrie Peters
Ghana: Our Sister Killjoy / Ama Ata Aidoo
Guinea: The Radiance of the King / Camara Laye
Guinea-Bissau: The Ultimate Tragedy / Abdulai Sila
Kenya: Babette's Feast / Isak Dinesen
Lesotho: Singing Away the Hunger : The Autobiography of an African Woman / Mpho ‘M’atsepo Nthunya
Liberia: She Would Be King / Wayétu Moore
Libya: The Return / Hisham Matar
Madagascar: Return to the Enchanted Island / Johary Ravaloson
Malawi: Skipping Without Ropes / Jack Mapanje
Mali: The Lieutenant of Kouta / Massa Makan Diabaté
Mauritania: The Desert and the Drum / Mbarek Ould Beyrouk
Mauritius: Silence of the Chagos / Shenaz Patel
Morocco: The Hospital / Ahmed Bouanani
Mozambique: Rain and Other Stories / Mia Couto
Namibia: Purple Violet of Oshaantu / Neshani Andreas
Niger: Epic of Askia Mohammed / Thomas A. Hale and Nouhou Malio
Nigeria: My Sister the Serial Killer / Oyinkan Braithwaite
Rwanda: Cockroaches / Scholastique Mukasonga
Sao Tome and Principe: Exorcising Devils from the Throne / Albertino Francisco & Nujoma Agostinho
Senegal: At Night All Blood Is Black / David Diop
Seychelles: War on America Seen from the Indian Ocean / James Mancham
Sierra Leone: Radiance of Tomorrow / Ishmael Beah
Somalia: The Lion’s Binding Oath and Other Stories / Ahmed Ismail Yusuf
South Africa: The Hobbit / JRR Tolkien
South Sudan: There Is a Country: New Fiction from the New Nation of South Sudan / Nyuol Lueth Tong
Sudan: The Wedding of Zein / Tayeb Salih
Tanzania: Afterlives / Abdulrazak Gurnah
Togo: An African in Greenland / Tete-Michel Kpomassie
Tunisia: The Ardent Swarm / Yamen Manai
Uganda: Waiting: A Novel of Uganda's Hidden War / Goretti Kyomuhendo
Zambia: Stranger Faces / Namwali Serpell
Zimbabwe: Out of Darkness, Shining Light / Petina Gappah