Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Books Set In Another Country


I've been working on the Around the World in 80 Books Challenge for almost a decade. I've been trying to read books set in as many different countries around the world as possible. So far, here are the books I've read set in different countries. I hope to one day read a book from every country in the world. 

80/210


Africa (18)
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith (Botswana)
Mango Elephants in the Sun by Susana Herrera (Cameroon)
Angry Wind by Jeffrey Tayler (Chad)
A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul (Democratic Republic of Congo)
The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany (Egypt)
The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu (Ethiopia)
Boundless Grace by Mary Hoffman (The Gambia)
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (Ghana)
The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton (Kenya)
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba (Malawi)
Glory in a Camel’s Eye by Jeffrey Tayler (Morocco)
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Republic of the Congo)
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevich (Rwanda)
A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers (Saudi Arabia)
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee (South Africa)
Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux (Sudan)
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin (Zimbabwe) 

Antarctica (1)
Surviving Antarctica by Andrea White (Antarctica)

Asia (20)
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (China)
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry (India)
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Indonesia)
The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer (Iran)
Ten Thousand Lovers by Edeet Ravel (Israel)
Japanland by Karin Muller (Japan)
The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maartin Troost (Kiribati)
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (Korea)
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad (Malaysia)
The Vast Unknown: America's First Ascent of Everest (Nepal)
My Freedom Trip (North Korea)
Tasting the Sky by Ibtisam Barakat (Palestine)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Russia)
Zaatar Days, Henna Nights by Maliha Masood (Syria)
Heaven Lake by John Dalton (Taiwan)
Kim by Rudyard Kipling (Tajikistan)
Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron (Uzbekistan)
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (Vietnam)

Australia/South Pacific (6)
Tracks by Robyn Davidson (Australia)
Shooting the Boh by Tracy Johnson (Borneo)
Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Maarten Troost (Fuji)
The Naked Tourist by Lawrence Osborne (New Guinea) 
The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera (New Zealand)
An Evening Among Headhunters by Lawrence Millman (Tonga)

Europe (24)
Andorra by Peter Cameron (Andorra)
Dobry by Monica Shannon (Bulgaria)
Beowulf (Denmark)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (England)
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida (Finland)
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (France)
The Keep by Jennifer Egan (Germany)
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (Greece)
The White Stag by Kate Seredy (Hungary)
Independent People by Halldor Laxness (Iceland)
The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy (Ireland)
Italian Folktales collected by Italo Calvino (Italy)
The Greatest Skating Race by Louise Borden (Netherlands)
The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom (Northern Ireland)
Dreamers by Knut Hamsun (Norway)
The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (Poland)
Blindness by José Saramago (Portugal)
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson (Scotland)
The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley (Serbia)
Spanish Lessons by Derek Lambert (Spain)
Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson (Sweden)
Heidi by Johanna Spyri (Switzerland)
Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King (Vatican City)
A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas (Wales)
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka (Ukraine)

North America (8)
Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat (Canada) 
All the Way to Havana by Margarita Engle (Cuba)
The Cay by Theodore Taylor (Curaçao)
Rainbow Weaver by Linda Elovitz Marshall (Guatemala) 
Madam Dread by Kathie Klarreich (Haiti)
Place Where the Sea Remembers by Sandra Benitez (Mexico)
A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipaul (Trinidad)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (United States)

South America (6)
Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson (Brazil)
Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende (Chile)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Columbia)
Bleaker House: Chasing My Novel to the End of the World (Faulkland Islands)
At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig by John Gimlette
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (Peru)


Do you have any recommendations for countries I haven't visited yet?




Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

21 comments:

  1. Around the world in 80 days, could you read 80 books in 80 days I wonder

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    1. I could read 80 books in 80 days...but could I read 80 books set in 80 different countries in 80 days?

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  2. Reading Death Comes in through the Kitchen (Cuban mystery set in Havana, Soho Press

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  3. wow! you do like to read books set all around the world! I am amazed by this long list!

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  4. What a great list! Off the top of my head, can't think of any in countries you haven't read about. I do see that I've read a few of the books on your list. Not many, but a few. Number the Stars - read that one at the suggestion of my daughter's elementary school librarian. I volunteered to help her and she opened my eyes to so many great books. It was a great experience. ;-)

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    1. Oh, I thought of a book for you. The Confusion of Languages by Siobhan Fallon - set in Jordan. There you go. LOL

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  5. What an amazing list! I’m so impressed that you’ve read such a wide variety of books from so many different countries. Whether consciously or unconsciously, that’s had to have had an Impact on your world view. At the very least it’s expanded it! :)

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  6. Oh wow! So many countries included! I think I need to expand my horizons!

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  7. What a list. I need to tag this for future reference.

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  8. What a fantastic list, Deb! I'm noting several titles for my own reading list, which I'm trying to make more diverse.

    I'm glad to see Canada on your list. It's the first time I've seen it mentioned today.

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  9. what an amazing list!! I had a tough time coming up with 10!! You are way more wordly than I..LOL
    http://justmeandmyblogreviews.blogspot.com/2018/03/top-ten-tuesday-10-books-that-take.html

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  10. This is an amazing list! Hope you'll get to add even more to it after this week's topic :)

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  11. This is some list!

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  12. Wow! You sure read a lot of great books in other countries! Great list!

    Here’s my TTT!

    Ronyell @ Rabbit Ears Book Blog

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  13. Such a big list!!! Still I can't say I read any of the books on your list! 🙂
    Great TTT!

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  14. I love reading books set in countries outside the United States!

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  15. I love how you've broken this list down! :)

    Lauren @ Always Me

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  16. I loved The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, but it is set in Washington D.C. The main character is an Ethiopian immigrant, but it's not set there.

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  17. lol, impressive :)
    I see you have one from Sweden. It said Astrid... and I emediately thought of Astrid Lindgren But is wasn´t. Astrid Lindgren is the author of "Pippi Longstocking" children stories.

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  18. Oh my gosh, this is absolutely amazing! I'm bookmarking this list to revisit in the future, because there are so many countries that you've visited that I'm hoping to be able to read about.

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