The List So Far
Below are the books that I’ve read (in the order I read them) and am counting towards my 100 books. There may be some books you’ll read about on my blog that won’t appear in the list - either because I’ve already read an author from that country but couldn’t resist another, or because they aren’t relevant to the 100 countries challenge. This list will be updated as I finish books, so keep checking back and feel free to make suggestions for future reading!
1. In Lucia’s Eyes, by Arthur Japin (Holland)
2. Les Liaisons Culinaires, by Andreas Staïkos (Greece)
3. Spring Flowers, Spring Frost, by Ismail Kadare (Albania)
4. No Saints or Angels, by Ivan Klíma (Czech Republic)
5. Embers, by Sándor Márai (Hungary)
6. The Czar’s Madman, by Jaan Kross (Estonia)
7. The Three Cornered Hat, by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (Spain)
8. The Fish Can Sing, by Halldór Laxness (Iceland)
9. Les Enfants Terribles, by Jean Cocteau (France)
10. Journey In Blue, by Stig Dalager (Denmark)
11. Reunion, by Fred Uhlman (Germany)
12. Home And Exile, by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria)
13. As The Crow Flies, by Véronique Tadjo (Côte d’Ivoire)
14. So Long A Letter, by Mariama Ba AND Scarlet Song, by Mariama Ba (Senegal)
15. Ancestor Stones, by Aminatta Forna (Sierra Leone)
16. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, by Ayi Kwei Armah (Ghana)
17. This Blinding Absence of Light, by Tahar Ben Jelloun (Morocco)
18. Woman At Point Zero, by Nadal El Saadawi (Egypt)
19. Memories of My Melancholy Whores, by Gabriel Garcia Márquez (Colombia)
20. Waiting, by Ha Jin AND A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, by Yiyun Li (China)
21. Death In The Andes, by Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)
22. Dirty Havana, by Pedro Juan Gutierrez (Cuba)
23. If This Is A Man & The Truce, by Primo Levi (Italy)
24. The Lady, The Chef and The Courtesan, by Marisol (Venezuela)
25. The Obscene Bird of Night, by Jose Donoso AND Memoirs, by Pablo Neruda (Chile)
26. The Red Queen, by Margaret Drabble (UK)
27. Thirteen Cents, by K. Sello Duiker (South Africa)
28. The Fatal Eggs, by Mikhail Bulgakov (Russia)
29. Pedro Páramo, by Juan Rulfo (Mexico)
30. Mugasha: Epic of the Bahaya, by Nyambura Mpesha (Kenya)
31. Nehanda, by Yvonne Vera (Zimbabwe)
32. The Lonely Londoners, by Sam Selvon (Trinidad)
33. Shipwrecks, by Akira Yoshimura (Japan)
34. The Sorrow of War, by Bao Ninh (Vietnam)
35. The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho (Brazil)
36. Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka (Austria)
37. The Book of Chameleons, by Jose Eduardo Agualusa (Angola)
38. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)
39. The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy (India)
40. Salt and Saffron, by Kamila Shamsie (Pakistan)
41. Desertion, by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Tanzania)
42. Yosl Rakover Talks To God, by Zvi Kolitz (Poland)
43. If You Awaken Love, by Emuna Elon (Israel)
44. Red Poppies, by Alai (Tibet)
45. Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson (Norway)
June 12, 2007 at 10:50 am
Wow, what a great idea! Can I make a recommendation for Australia? Cloudstreet, by Tim Winton. It’s just beautiful.
June 13, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Hi. I like your spot and good luck with your list. I read two great (world) books this year Vesna Goldsworthy’s “Chernobyl Strawberries” (Serbia) and Chinua Achebe’s “Things fall apart” (Nigeria).
Ah! and a question. How many countries in the world??
June 13, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Meli, thanks for the Australia recommendation - I just made a new page for books I’d like to read and recommended books, so I’ll add that on there.
Voula, yours is a much debated question, and there is no definite answer. But somewhere between 189 and 194 is the general agreement. Boundaries blur between places like the Vatican City, which is a state on its own and independent, but is it a country? And can Taiwan be considered a separate country from China? Impossible to say really! But the important thing is, there is plenty of room for me to pick 100 countries to read books from!
August 2, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Hi, I really like your blog! Good luck with getting to 100.
Interesting choice of Paulo Coelho for your book from Brazil. It sounds like you really like his writing as in your post you mention that you had already read The Alchemist. But if you decide to look into reading anything else from Brazil, I can highly recommend writers such as Jorge Amado, Chico Buarque and Patricia Melo all of whom have books available in English translation, and will give you much more of a ‘Brazilian’ theme/setting than Paulo Coelho.
I am also curious to know - is there any reason why you don’t list the names of the translators of each book on the list?
Hope you enjoyed your trip to China!
August 4, 2007 at 9:25 am
Hey Spectacled Bear; the reason I read Coelho was because the book was on my shelf and it was relatively short, and I had not read anything from Brazil…I also have Amado’s Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, but was feeling a distinct lack of time! Lazy of me, I know, but I fully intend reading it some time in the future.
In response to your question, the only reason I have not been listing translators is because it never occurred to me to do so, but I shall start naming translators in future. Good point, thanks!
October 24, 2007 at 6:26 am
“My Brilliant Career” by Miles Franklin is a good choice for Australia, too. Not everyone realizes that it’s a work of fiction. “The Legacy,” by Nevil Shute — “A Town Like Alice” was based on this work, and some books now carry this title. And “Voss” by Patrick White. Lots of good choices. If you fancy D.H. Lawrence, he wrote a book about Australia — “Kangaroo.” Lots of good choices. And that’s just fiction — get into nonfiction, and the landscape opens up further.
November 11, 2007 at 5:08 pm
It might help you out if you broke the UK into its separate countries. Check out these sites: for Scotland, for Wales and for Northern Ireland.
Margaret Drabble was, of course, born in Sheffield so you have England covered.
January 31, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Amazing list. I will find some great choices in here, I am guessing…
January 31, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Great boys15e4ff44d768bdef17bf4b69211e6810
February 23, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Hey! I don’t know if you still update this thing or not, but I still find it awesome!
Anyway, it is so cool you have García Márquez up there, but is such a shame you read that last book… it is not his best work. Can I recommend Chronicle of an Announced Death? It is great, and light
June 3, 2008 at 10:12 am
This is a nice idea, but I personally am not happy with the kind of books selected/mentioned.
books are prophets of the country they represent and when you choose a book from a country it should reflect that country’s soul.
June 4, 2008 at 11:20 am
Hi! I realize you already have read Arundhati Roy for India, but if you have place for one more, you should definitely try ‘Shantaram’ by Gregory David Roberts. The book has managed to do the erstwhile impossible - put the country into words. And oh, don’t let the size of the book scare you