I’m starting a second, parallel challenge to the 50 Book Challenge. As well as reading at least 50 books for that challenge, I’m going to try to read 50 books from different countries by the end of the year (World Lit Challenge.)

I welcome suggestions; none of my choices of country are set in stone, so if know an amazing book from a country not on the list, please suggest it. Nothing from the UK, Ireland, or the US, please. Non-fiction is acceptable.

My (slightly convoluted) rules for myself:

To qualify for the list, either the book must be set in the country, or the author must be from the country and the book must in some way deal with matters related to the country. Just to make it interesting, I must find five books for the list from every continent (except Antarctica, for obvious reasons.)

To be read: a work-in-progress:

International

1. Around the World in Eighty Days » Jules Verne (fiction)

Asia (7+8/5)

1. China: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress » Dai Sijie (fiction)
2. China: The Good Women of China » Xinran (memoir)
3. China: The Good Earth » Pearl S. Buck (fiction)
4. China: Women of the Silk » Gail Tsukiyama (fiction)
5. China: The Language of Threads » Gail Tsukiyama (fiction)
6. China: Snake Agent » Liz Williams (mystery, fantasy)
7. China: The Chinese Bell Murders » Robert van Gulik (historical mystery)
8. India: Tales from Firozsha Baag » Rohinton Mistry (short story collection)
9. India: Brahma’s Dream » Shree Ghatage (fiction)
10. India: The Far Pavilions » M.M. Kaye (historical fiction)
11. Iran: Reading Lolita in Tehran » Azar Nafisi (memoir)
12. Japan: The Samurai’s Garden » Gail Tsukiyama (historical fiction)
13. South Korea: The New Year » Pearl S. Buck (fiction)
14. Sri Lanka: Cinnamon Gardens » Shyam Selvadurai (historical fiction)
15. Tibet: Sky Burial » Xinran (memoir, travel diary)

Africa (5+2/5)

1. Egypt: Palace Walk » Naguib Mahfouz (fiction)
2. Egypt: The Mamur Zapt and the Return of the Carpet » Michael Pearce (mystery)
3. Egypt: I Think of You » Ahdaf Soueif (short story collection)
4. Morocco: Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits » Laila Lalami (fiction)
5. Nigeria: Purple Hibiscus » Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (fiction)
6. Rwanda: Speak Rwanda » Julian R. Pierce (fiction)
7. South Africa: The Power of One » Bryce Courtenay (fiction)

North America (including the Caribbean) (2/5)

1. Canada: China Dog and Other Stories » Judy Fong Bates
2. Mexico: Like Water for Chocolate » Laura Esquivel

South America (including Central America) (1/5)

1. Chile: Portrait in Sepia » Isabel Allende

Europe (1/5)

1. France: Chocolat » Joanna Harris

Oceania (1/5)

1. Australia: I Am the Messenger » Markus Zusak

Antarctica (0/1)

1. ?

Possible reads for this challenge, mostly suggested by fellow readers (books I own but haven’t read are in bold):

Asia

• Afghanistan: The Kite Runner » Khaled Hosseini
• Afghanistan: A Thousand Splendid Suns » Khaled Hosseini (fiction)
• Cambodia: The Clay Marble » Minfong Ho
• China: Love in a Fallen City » Eileen Chang (short story collection)
• China (Tibet): Stick Out Your Tongue » Ma Jian (short story collection)
• China: Waiting » Ha Jin (fiction)
• China: Red Dust » Ma Jian (travel diary)
• China: Romance of the Three Kingdoms » Guanzhong Luo
• India: Such a Long Journey or A Fine Balance or Family Matters » Rohinton Mistry (fiction)
• India: The Death of Vishnu » Manil Suri (ficton)
• India: Shantaram » Gregory David Roberts
• India: The Namesake » Jhumpa Lahiri
• India: Nectar in a Sieve » Kamala Markandaya
• India: The Cripple and His Talismans » Anosh Irani
• India: The Song of Kahunsha » Anosh Irani
• India: The Game » Laurie R. King (mystery, historical fiction, travel diary)
• Israel: Ten Thousand Lovers » Edeet Ravel
• Japan: Wind-Up Bird Chronicle » Haruki Murakami (fiction)
• Japan: Memoirs of a Geisha » Arthur Golden
• Japan: Norwegian Wood » Haruki Murakami
• Japan: Wrong About Japan » Peter Carey
• Nepal: Sleeping in Caves » Marilyn Stablein
• Palestine: O Jerusalem » Laurie R. King (mystery, historical fiction, travel diary)
• Sri Lanka: Funny Boy » Shyam Selvedurai
• Sri Lanka: Reef » Romesh Gunesekera (fiction)
• Turkey: Snow » Orhan Pamuk (fiction)

Africa

• [Africa]: The Poisonwood Bible » Barbara Kingsolver
• [Africa]: Dark Star » Paul Theroux (travel diary)
• Botswana: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency » Alexander McCall Smith
• Egypt: The Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street) » Naguib Mahfouz
• Egypt: The Harafish » Naguib Mahfouz
• Egypt: The Map of Love » Ahdaf Soueif
• Ethiopia: The Unfortunate Marriage of Azeb Yitades » Nega Mezlekia
• Kenya: A Grain of Wheat » Ngugi Wa Thiong’O
• Morocco: The Director and Other Stories or The Year of the Elephant » Leila Abouzeid
• Morocco: Sand Child and The Sacred Night » Tahar Ben Jelloun
• Nigeria: Yoruba Girl Dancing » Simi Bedford
• Rwanda: A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali » Gil Courtemanche, trans. Patricia Claxton (fiction)
• Rwanda: Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda » Roméo Dallaire
• Senegal: So Long a Letter » Mariama Ba
• Somalia: Black Hawk Down » Mark Bowden
• South Africa: Disgrace » J.M. Coetzee
• South Africa: The Seed and the Sower » Laurens van der Post
• South Africa: Long Walk to Freedom » Nelson Mandela
• South Africa: My Traitor’s Heart » Rian Malan
• Sudan: Season of Migration to the North » Tayeb Salih
• Zimbabwe: The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm » Nancy Farmer (young adult, science fiction)
• Zimbabwe: Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters » John Steptoe

North America (including the Caribbean)

• Canada: I Have Lived Here Since the World Began » Arthur J. Ray (non-fiction: history)
• Caribbean: He Drown She in the Sea » Shani Mootoo
• Cuba: Before Night Falls » Reinaldo Arenas
• Cuba: Waiting for Snow in Havana » Carlos Eire (memoir)
• Dominican Republic: In the Time of the Butterflies » Julia Alvarez (fiction)
• Guadeloupe: Crossing the Mangrove » Maryse Conde
• Haiti: The Dew Breaker » Edwidge Danticat
• Martinique: Texaco » Patrick Chamoiseau

South America (including Central America)

• Argentina: Labyrinths » Jorge Luis Borges
• Argentina: Kiss of the Spider Woman » Manuel Puig
• Brazil: Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon » Jorge Amado
• Chile: Daughter of Fortune » Isabel Allende
• Columbia: One Hundred Years of Solitude » Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
• Peru: Cellophane » Marie Arana
• Peru: The Bridge of San Luis Rey » Thornton Wilder (fiction)

Europe

• [Europe]: Night » Elie Weisel
• Denmark: Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow (or Smilla’s Sense of Snow) » Peter Hoeg
• France: The Count of Monte Cristo » Alexandre Dumas
• France: Bonjour Tristesse » Françoise Sagan
• Germany: Slaughterhouse-Five » Kurt Vonnegut
• Germany: Austerlitz » W.G. Sebald (fiction)
• Germany: The Neverending Story » Michael Ende
• Iceland: The Fish Can Sing » Halldór Laxness
• Italy: The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana » Umberto Eco (fiction)
• Italy: If on a winter’s night a traveler » Italo Calvino
• Italy: The Name of the Rose » Umberto Eco (historical fiction)
• Italy: Catch-22 » Joseph Heller
• Italy: A Farewell to Arms » Ernest Hemingway
• Italy: The Golden Ass » Apuleius
• Italy: Zeno’s Conscience (or Confessions of Zeno) » Italo Svevo
• Portugal: Blindness » José Saramago
• Russia: Anna Karenina » Leo Tolstoy
• Russia: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich » Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
• Russia: Crime and Punishment » Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Russia: Women in Russian History » Natalia Pushkareva, ed. and trans. Eve Levin (non-fiction: history)
• Russia: August, 1914 » Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
• Russia: The Brothers Karamazov » Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Russia: Pnin » Vladimir Nabokov (fiction)
• Spain: Don Quixote » Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Oceania:

• Australia: The Solid Mandala » Patrick White
• Australia: A Fortunate Life » A.B. Facey (autobiography)
• Australia: A Pirate of Exquisite Mind » Diana and Michael Preston
• Hawaii: From Here to Eternity » James Jones
• New Zealand: The Whale Rider » Witi Ihimaera
• Samoa: Where We Once Belonged » Sia Figiel
• Samoa: The Mango’s Kiss » Albert Wendt

Antarctica

• Endurance: Shakleton’s Incredible Voyage » Alfred Lansing (non-fiction)

Inspired by this post. Recommendations also requested in this post at my livejournal and this post at 50bookchallenge. People had some interesting thoughts about the books they recommended.

Books read: 28/50 (56%)
To complete the challenge, I still need to read:

• North America: 3
• South America: 4
• Europe: 4
• Oceania: 4
• Antarctica: 1
• Free choices: 6

Tags: World Lit Challenge