I'm trying to read a book from every country on Earth. What are your recommendations for some of the lesser known cultures?
I'm trying to read a book from every country on Earth.
I'm trying to read a book from every country on Earth. What are your recommendations for some of the lesser known cultures?
which australian book did you read?
Riders in the Chariot
any good? only australian books ive read were prescribed reading in high school i think
NTA but Patrick White is a great author and probably Australia's best overall, I haven't heard of that book book but from looking it up it looks quite emblematic of Australian experience with its suburban themes.
Voss is probably his most famous, to do with an Australian explorer's ill-fated journey in the outback (loosely based on the real life Leichhardt) but honestly outback/ explorer journeys, while a part of Australia's history, are really not that representative of the culture or history of Australia, it's more of an imagined thing.
The Vivisector is also a good one of his that chronicles an artists life, it's also great but more of a dive into an Australian artist's psyche than a good overall Australian book
t. Australian
Deadly Uner. Was the worst fricking book I ever read with the Great Gatsby.
i had to read cloudstreet, blackrock and broken lives. all of them were absolutely awful. i so vaguely remember deadly unna but i dont think i actually read it
The picture came out a bit small so here's a list
Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Ireland (clicked Iceland on the app by mistake), UK, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Turkey, Poland (forgot to include it)
Canada, Mexico, Dominica, USA
Brazil
Afghanistan, China, Japan, Israel
Australia
Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa
Taking suggestions on everything I'm missing
>Poland
ferdydurke
Angola: Mayombe by Pepetela
Independent People by Halldór Laxness for Iceland
O Armatolos by Grigor Prličev from Macedonia. Lovely poem.
Children Of The Alley by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt)
The Lady Of Zamalek by Ashraf Al-Ashmawi (Egypt)
The Critical Case Of A Man Called K by Aziz Mohamed (Saudi Arabia)
The Yacobian Building by Alaa Al-Aswany (Egypt)
>China
Deer and the Cauldron
>Romania
something by cartarescu
A House for Mr Biswas
Tiepolo's Hound
Wide Sargasso Sea
Ticks off some of the smaller Caribbean countries
Already read WSS but thank you for the others
Argentina: https://www.amazon.com/Domingo-F-Sarmiento/dp/0140436774/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?tag=ganker-20&crid=27FW949ECFCH1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.5-QafZdxDtDJPMSDgQYU_isrEVCRUEkK5Qa73TRHWWefU6yVXoD0F6zF9SjQex08u8LmnJQHS9VFR92Cr3f7mN6-YmixKCM0PFJToQREfULrAmnTlfLZW_5hoEEyqArchUVXPzI3r9HTSO99DCoVPZl3KP86W1Jz1ERUWfuPoia0S5hBp879X81G66iKrVDcIRiTvah-ataGfH70e365rg.PcwgaznayndUyaADF1FPLlJzEvIMIoyyCDJOU6VBjo0&dib_tag=se&keywords=facundo+civilization+and+barbarism&qid=1711979181&sprefix=facundo+civi%2Caps%2C369&sr=8-1
>Hungary
poetry of Attila József
>Ethiopia
Reckon Baburnama counts as Uzbekistan, and depending on how strict you are gets you some of the other stans too
Finland: Kalevala
Don't have any recs but I'm curious, how did you create this map?
Counting Albert Camus as Algerian literature would be like counting Rudyard Kipling as Indian literature.
I didn't count Camus, I read Yacine.
I should count India though, I've read In the Buddha's Words.
>like counting Rudyard Kipling as Indian literature
Considering the UK is about to become an indian/paki colony that would be more truthful than you might think
>UK is about to become an indian/paki colony
revenge is sweet
>revenge for unifying your disparate shitholes into a functioning country
?
>white people go to country that doesn't belong to them
>this is ours now
>kill everybody that complains
>kill a bunch of other people just for funsies
>country is still shit, but now a bunch of people are dead and everything that wasn't shit before is now in shambles
>see, aren't you happy we fixed your country?
>Indians go to a country that doesn't belong to them
>starts shitting everywhere
>shits more
>streets full of shit
>doesn't stop shitting
>we are very useful sarr, pls let me in sar
It does belong to them. The Earth is a gift to the white race from heaven
I know you're historically illiterate but it wasn't a single country back then and they were busy murdering the frick out of each other when euros arrived.
Is that true or a pol meme?
a pol meme
shit sux, thought their food was finally gonna git gud
Interesting challenge. Please make another post when you’re finished.
Tanzania: Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Surinam: We Slaves of Surinam by Anton de Kom
Congo-Brazzaville: Ngando by Paul Lomami-Tshibamba
Georgia: plenty to choose from but I’d go for something by Nino Haratischwili
OP, may I suggest you go hard mode and don’t read any colonial literature. That would make it way too easy and also less interesting.
That grey Ireland tells me you still haven't read Joyce, I suggest you fix it soon
Kiwi here
You've left NZ off the map mate
Read 'Once were warriors'
If it's anything like the movie it will be entertaining
You should really read Once Were Warriors, it's a fantastic book
I haven't seen the movie but I know they make one major different which imo completely fricks up the narrative and major developments of the book
Good pick. Alternatively, Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame or The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield. If you want something from a Maori perspective, Witi Ihimaera is good and his best is probably The Whale Rider or Pounamu, Pounamu
Once Were Warriors is alright but its kind of overrated. I think unironically you have to look at the existentialist tradition of New Zealand literature. Man Alone by John Mulgan or Philosopher Dick/South Sea Siren by George Chamier are the two which really stand out but there's a lot of really great New Zealand novels.
Hell you could even read Erewhon and count that as a New Zealand novel.
Honduras
easy Colombia pick here, m8
Guatemala
Easy good one for Sudan
Are you really going to do every African country?
Why not? Both North African and colonial literature is pretty rich. You may run into some dry countries but I'd say most of the continent should have produced decent lit.
You haven't read one from Poland, so I'd recommend adding a translation of "ice" by Jacek Dukaj onto your list. I'm really glad he's finally getting a serious work of his translated, hopefully people are going to appreciate him
>Turkmenistan
>Ruhnama by Turkmenbashi Saparmurat Nijazov
(It's not good)
>Libya
>pic related
https://www.amazon.com/d/B0817D7J3X/
Lithuanian
Some Asian reccs, I am a scholar of Asian literature after all.
India
Recycled poop breakfast, a guide yo a healthy gut flora. Drs. Prabhat Iyengar and Aarushi Srivastava
Pakistan
The New Stools Bitcoin Economy, Paving a Brown Road To Our Future. Mahwish Suleiman
North Korea
Holy Shit Missiles ==> Our Poops Bring Us Forward To Freedom From Imperial Dogma!!! !!! Honourable Dr. Kim Dung-Po
Thanks for putting your sub 80IQ on display here, but I'm sure pol misses you
Borges' Ficciones would be the argentinian cliché book, but I'd recomend The Regal Lemon Tree, from Saer
Ukraine: Nikolai Gogol's short story collections about Ukraine - "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka" and "Mirgorod".
Belarus: "King Stakh's Wild Hunt" by Uladzimir Karatkievich.
>Ukraine
OP already read russian books
Norwegian: Growth of the Soil
Going by country is dumb anyways, should go by language/culture
The problem with that is that some cultures have no written language. Find me a novel written by a Kawahiva, I dare you.
You don't have to catalogue every single language you autismo, you could just go by cultural areas, for example Macunaíma is a Brazilian book that engages with Amazonian Brazil cultures
Why bother doing this? Some countries are devoid of any modern culture. African countries to be precise.
I'm mostly curious about those new or very tiny countries
I won't expect you to find many good books coming from eSwatini, Timor Leste or Liechtenstein
>Liechtenstein
Funnily for that example, the prince himself wrote a book called " State of Third Millenium".
"Secret History of the Mongols" sprung to mind as a book by Mongolia.
Can't vouch for either books quality though, just books that came to mind for smaller countries in case no one has anything better for them.
you can count Sub-Saharan Africa as one country
>count USA and Canada as one
>count Oceania as one
>count Latin America (including Cuba) as one
>count Caribbean as one
>count UK and Ireland as one
>count ex USSR as one
>count continental western Europe as one
>count Balkans as one
>count Middle East as one
>count central and southern Africa as one
>count sub-saharan Africa as one
>count southeast Asia as one
>count nordic countries as one
>count germanic countries as one
I solved the world
Solve what? You simply dumbed down geography
For a few of the latinamerican countries I've always enjoyed whatever wins the Algayuara prize. Specially if you want to move away from basic b***h recommendations like One hundred years of solitude like someone already did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algayuara_Prize
Colombia should absolutely be 100 Years of Solitude.
Olga Tokarczuk is supposed to be a good, modern Polish author.
Don't know if you've done New Zealand yet but 'Once Were Warriors' is great
Obviously India has a lot of options but a good one could be 'The White Tiger' which focuses on people coming from the regions of abject poverty that never tend to have literature written about them.
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Tokarczuk#Views
Anon, this is the most cancerous thing I have read all year.
The Long Ships for Sweden
Hunger or Pan for Norway
Egil’s Saga for Iceland
Ah a man of taste
Instead of Hunger, read Growth of the soil. Idk why people praise Hunger, when it's not even the best of Hamsun.
based growthbro
only read hunger and growth myself but I loved growth and just liked hunger
Exactly. While Hunger is decent book, it is nowhere close as good and poetic as growth of the soil. Growth remarks the human life as it used to be for thousands of years.
>hasnt read an irish book
its not joever. it never even began
Nauru
Absolutely peak lit. I'd recommend Albert Wendt for Samoa as well and for my native Fiji, I'd say that an emotive historical book like Tears in Paradise would be the ideal
You are now aware that if you moved to one of those tiny countries where everyone is illiterate and wrote a book you could be hailed as a local hero for producing mediocre work.
My recommendation for Albania is Rrno Vetëm për me Tregue by Át Zef Pllumi. The title translates "Live long only for to tell" (or less literally "Survive so you can tell the tale"), but that's a mouthful, so the title of the translation is just "Live to Tell". It tells the story of the advent of communism in Albania. It's written by a Catholic priest so you get a Catholic perspective, but it's an enjoyable book even if you're not Catholic.
Here's a link to the translation: https://www.amazon.com/Live-Tell-1944-1951-Religious-Persecution/dp/0595452981
Only the first volume is translated, which sucks because the second volume is the best, but whatya gonna do (except learn Gheg Albanian of course)
Great thread, added a lot of these books to my mental to read list, which I will completely forget about in two weeks time when I find new stuff I want but will never get around to reading
Andrey Kurkov is supposed to be Ukraine's living novelist atm, haven't read any of his stuff but Death and the Penguin is a post-Soviet book which seems to be the one he's most known for, there's also Grey Bees which is more modern and set in the period after Russia annexed Crimea and features the separatist wars in the East (although it was written before the current war)
Jachym Tool for Czech is a must, I liked The Devils Workshop but City Sister Silver is his masterpiece.
My Tired Father by Gellu Naum for Romania
you can use Twisted Spoon Press for literature from many obscure eastern euro countries.
Forest of a Thousand Demons by D.A gayunwa for Yoruba (it sucks, almost all African lit outside of modern lit sucks, at least the 5 or so I've tried)
Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash by Eka Kurniawan for Indonesia
Cane by Jean Toomer for Harlem Renaissance/The South
all me. OP I would just add that Twisted Spoon will be invaluable for your quest. They have their catalog organized by country and have counties as obscure as say Moldova and it's not just random books from these countries they are usually the most important cultural works available.
Paradiso by Jose Lima for Cuba
Cyclist Conspiracy by Basara for Serbia
Czechia could be Milan Kundera's - Unbearable Lightness of Being
For Ukraine you could go for some of Taras Shevchenko's poetry.
Does Joseph Conrad count for Poland?
India
Korea
Kyrgyzstan - The Day Lasts More Than A Hundred Years
this is certifiably the most important cultural work of its country, well done
Beat me to it. My Kyrgyz wife introduced me to lots of Aitmatov. The recent extract translation of manas their National epic poem published by penguin is worth a read too.
Singapore
The author is British but I think this counts, as it his own story
An excellent set of war memoirs
Philippines
Algeria - anything by Camus
I did this! Here's one:
Mother's Beloved: Stories from Laos
Laos is a fricking struggle, they don't have much of a literary scene.
>Finland
>The Unknown Soldier
Which book from switzerland did you read?
Croatian god Mars - Miroslav Krleža
Cyclops - Ranko Marinković
Do you need fiction, non-fiction, or what?
I'm not saying not to read Tokarczuk, but she's celebrated primarily because she's a womeme and because she writes a lot about israelites.
South Korea
Pachinko - Min Jin Lee
Slovakia
The Seventh Night - Ladislav Mňačko
Ireland
Borstal Boy -Brendan Behan
Under the North Star by Väinö Linna. It is a multigenerational story, in a similar manner to East of Eden, but set in Finland during the first decades of its independence. It is highly regarded as one of the most important books from Finland, along with Kalevala, being the national epic, and Sinuhe the Egyptian, which is the most sold and known book from Finland.
If you haven’t read anything from Sweden, I would highly recommend The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson. A real classic Viking saga
Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism, from Argentina.
Latvia: White Pages
I recommend to check the Western Canon, specifically the chaotic age. It includes the best works from Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa.
http://sonic.net/~rteeter/grtbloom.html
Nobel laureates by smaller nations to make things easier for you.
Guatemala: Mauro Angel Asturias
Chile: Pablo Neruda
Colombia: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Nigeria: Wole Basedinka
Saint Lucia: Derek Walcott
Trinidad and Tobago: Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul
Hungary: Imre Kertész
Peru: Mario Vargas Llosa
Sweden: Tomas Tranströmer
Belarus: Svetlana Alexievich
Tanzania: Abdulrazak Gurnah
Norway: Jon Fosse
Tobacco by Dimitar Dimov from Bulgaria, not sure if it has translation though
Chile: By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolano (Savage detectives and 2666 take place in Mexico mostly)
Uzbekistan: The Devil's Dance by Hasmid Ismailov
Finland: The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
Greenland and Togo: An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie
Czech Republic: Closely Watched Trains by Bouhmil Hrabal