Reading the World

A little while ago I read this blogpost by novelist and academic Adam Roberts listing his favourite novels from the countries around the world. Like him I realised rapidly that there were a lot more places I'd never read anything from than places I had. I also realised a lot of what I tended to think of as 'world fiction' when I read it was actually by American authors of African extraction, or British authors of Southeast and East Asian extraction. And I have read a ridiculous number of Spanish crime novels.

I have not attempted to have a 'favourite' novel; I just listed anything I could think of as being from that country. There's also a catch: many authors are mostly associated with one country but were actually born in another. I have used the country which seems to me to fit them most; hence Italo Calvino is not Cuban but Italian.


Afghanistan 
Albania  
Algeria
Andorra 
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda 
Argentina
Armenia 
Australia Jane Harper The Dry
Austria  
Azerbaijan 

Bahamas 
Bahrain 
Bangladesh 
Barbados 
Belarus 
Belgium – Hergé, Tintin 
Belize 
Benin 
Bhutan 
Bolivia 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana 
Brazil 
Brunei 
Bulgaria 
Burkina Faso 
Burundi 

Cambodia 
Cameroon 
Canada – Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
Central African Republic 
Chad  
Chile  
China Jung Chang Wild Swans
Colombia 
Congo 
Costa Rica 
Côte d'Ivoire 
Croatia 
Cuba 
Cyprus 
Czech Republic – Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis and other stories

Denmark 
Djibouti 
Dominica 

Ecuador 
Egypt Ahdaf Soueif, The Map of Love
El Salvador 
England Diana Wynne Jones, Deep Secret
Equatorial Guinea 
Eritrea 
Estonia 
Ethiopia 

Fiji 
Finland Hannu Rajaniemi, The Quantum Thief
France – Michel Bussi, Black Waterlilies

Gabon
Gambia, The 
Germany Cornelia Funke, Inkheart
Ghana 
Greece – Homer's Odyssey
Grenada
Guatemala
Guyana 

Haiti 
Honduras 
Hungary – Baroness Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel

Iceland 
India Vikram Seth, An Equal Music
Indonesia 
Iran 
Iraq 
Ireland – Catherine Ryan Howard, Distress Signals
Israel 
Italy Italo Calvino, If on a winter's night a traveller

Jamaica 
Japan Haruki Marukami Norwegian Wood
Jordan 

Kazakhstan 
Kenya 
Korea 
Kuwait 
Kyrgyzstan 

Laos 
Latvia 
Lebanon 
Lesotho 
Liberia 
Libya 
Liechtenstein 
Lithuania 
Luxembourg 

Macedonia 
Malawi 
Malaysia Zen Cho Sorceror To The Crown
Maldives 
Malta
Mauritania 
Mauritius 
Mexico 
Micronesia 
Moldova 
Monaco 
Mongolia
Montenegro 
Morocco 
Mozambique 
Myanmar 

Namibia 
Nepal 
Netherlands 
New Zealand – Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries 
Nicaragua 
Niger
Nigeria 
Northern Ireland – Colin Bateman, Belfast Confidential
Norway – Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's Choice

Oman

Palestine 
Pakistan
Panama 
Papua New Guinea 
Paraguay 
Peru 
Philippines – David Ramirez, The Forever Watch
Poland
Portugal

Qatar 

Romania 
Russia Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Rwanda 

Saint Lucia 
Samoa 
Saudi Arabia 
Scotland John Buchan, The 39 Steps
Senegal
Serbia .
Seychelles 
Sierra Leone 
Singapore 
Slovakia
Slovenia 
Somalia 
South Africa – Lauren Beukes, The Shining Girls
Spain – Jose Carlos Somoza, The Athenian Murders
Sudan 
Suriname 
Swaziland 
Sweden 
Switzerland – Johanna Spyri, Heidi
Syria 

Taiwan – Tash Aw, The Harmony Silk Factory 
Tajikistan
Tanzania 
Thailand 
Togo 
Tonga 
Trinidad 
Tunisia 
Turkey – Orhan Pamuk, The New Life

Uganda
Ukraine –Andrey Kurkov, Death and the Penguin
United Arab Emirates 
United States – Tamora Pierce, Alanna: the first adventure
Uruguay 
Uzbekistan 

Venezuela 
Vietnam

Wales 

Yemen 

Zambia 
Zimbabwe 


I have a reading list starting to form up, and that seems like it might be a project to me!