Sarams reading around the world

Inspired by a book I got for Christmas (yes, I cheated and read it before.. ), Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, I hereby challenge myself to a trip around the world through books.

Persepolis was excellent. Have you read the sequel?

Yes, RidgewayGirl, it was both stories in one book.

Afghanistan - A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini

Albania - La niche de la honte by Ismail Kadare

Algeria - So vast the prison by Assia Djebar

Andorra

Angola Jaime Bunda- secret agent by Pepetela

Antigua and Barbuda- At the bottom of the river- Jamaica Kincaid

Argentina

Armenia

Australia - Fighting Ruben Wolfe by Markus Zusak

Austria

Azerbaijan

Bahamas

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Barbados

Belarus - Bön för Tjernobyl by Svetlana Aleksijevitj

Belgium

Belize

Benin

Bhutan

Bolivia

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Botswana

Brazil The Zahir - Paulo Coelho

Brunei Darussalam

Bulgaria

Burkina Faso

Burundi

Cambodia

Cameroon les arbres en parlent encore by Calixthe Beyala

Canada Penelopiaden by Margaret Atwood

Cape Verde

Central African Republic

Chad

Chile - Inés of my soul by Isabel Allende

China - Beijing Coma by Ma Jian

Colombia - Love in the time of cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

Comoros

Congo, Democratic Republic of the (Congo-Kinshasa)

Congo, Republic of the (Congo-Brazzaville) - Ett piggsvins meoarer by Alain Mabanckou

Costa Rica

Côte d'Ivoire- Långt från min far by Véronique Tadjo
Croatia - Katt i Warszawa by Slavenka Drakulic

Cuba

Cyprus - Den tysta patienten - Alex Michaelides

Czech Republic

Denmark- Flickorna på Englandsbåten by Lone Theils

Djibouti

Dominica

Dominican Republic

Ecuador

Egypt- The Yacoubian building by Alaa Al-Aswany

El Salvador

Eritrea

Estonia - The misadventures of the New Satan by Anton Tammsaare

Ethiopia

Fiji

Finland- Linnunaivot by Johanna Sinisalo

France- L'Echappée belle by Anna Gavalda

Gabon

Gambia

Georgia

Germany - Die Teufelsbibel by Richard Dübell

Ghana

Greece

Grenada

Guatemala

Guinea, Republic of

Guinea, Republic of Equatorial (Equatorial Guinea)

Guinea-Bissau

Guyana

Haiti - Att skörda ben av Edwidge Danticat

Honduras

Hungary- Liquidation by Imre Kertész

Iceland- Fælden by Lilja Sigurdadóttir

India - Q&A by Vikas Swarup

Indonesia - Short stories from Tusen gevärskulor, tusen fjärilar.

Iran - Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Iraq

Ireland - The perfect man by Sheila O'Flanagan

Israel

Italy- Stål by Silvia Avallone

Jamaica

Japan - After dark by Haruki Murakami

Jordan

Kazakhstan

Kenya

Kiribati

Korea, Democratic People's Republic of (North Korea)- Nordkorea: nio år på flykt från helvetet by Eunsun Kim

Korea, Republic of (South Korea)- The ancient garden by Hwang Sok-Yong

Kuwait

Kyrgyzstan - Face to face by Chyngyz Aitmatov

Laos

Latvia

Lebanon - Samarkand by Aamin Maalouf

Lesotho

Liberia

Libya

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Macedonia

Madagascar

Malawi

Malaysia - Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Maldives

Mali

Malta

Marshall Islands

Mauritania

Mauritius

Mexico- Un dulce olor a muerte by Guillermo Arriaga

Micronesia

Moldova

Monaco

Mongolia

Montenegro

Morocco- Confidences à Allah by Saphia Azzedine

Mozambique- Under frangipaniträdet av Mia Couto

Myanmar (Burma)

Namibia

Nauru

Nepal

Netherlands . Trädet och vinrankan av Dola de Jong

New Zealand - Lagunen by Janet Frame

Nicaragua

Niger

Nigeria - "Half Of A Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Norway- "The Redeemer" by Jo Nesbo

Oman

Pakistan

Palau

Panama

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Peru

Philippines

Poland - The last wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

Portugal - Tårkommissionen by Antonio Lobo Antunes

Qatar

Romania

Russian Federation - Den stulna drömmen by Alexandra Marinina

Rwanda

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Samoa

San Marino

Sao Tome and Principe

Saudi Arabia

Senegal- Une si longue lettre by Mariama Bâ

Serbia

Seychelles

Sierra Leone

Singapore

Slovakia

Slovenia

Solomon Islands

Somalia

South Africa - Tannie Marias recept på kärlek och mord av Sally Andrew

Spain- Shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Sri Lanka

Sudan - Minaret by Leila Aboulela

Suriname

Swaziland

Sweden- Svampkungens son by Marie Hermanson

Switzerland

Syria

Tajikistan

Tanzania

Thailand

Timor-Leste

Togo

Tonga

Trinidad and Tobago

Tunisia - Le trezième disciple by Claude Kayat

Turkey - The prophet murders by Mehmet Murat Somer

Turkmenistan

Tuvalu

Uganda

Ukraine

United Arab Emirates

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Taste for Death by P.D.James

United States of America - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Uruguay

Uzbekistan

Vanuatu

Venezuela

Vietnam - Eldsommar, juliregn. Tio noveller.

Yemen- I am Nujood, 10 years old and divorced by Nujood Ali

Zambia

Zimbabwe- Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah

As you can see, I decided to go for the UN member states. I probably won't count re-reads, unless I'm in a really tight spot..

I read Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and so i have visited Spain and Barcelona.

Didn't know where to go next, so I decided to follow the alphabetical order and start with Afghanistan. A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini. I have a couple of friends who thoroughly recommended this one. I'm not so convinced. It was all so melodramatical. I'm not saying it was bad, just predictable to some extent.

If you have a suggestion for an Albanian writer, please let me know- right now I have no idea..

> 9 Ismail Kadare, who is one of my favorite authors, is from Albania.

Thank you for the suggestion! I saw that my library has a couple of his works- I will look them up.

I decided to let PD James and "A taste for death" represent the UK on my list.

Mostly police books for me now, but at this point I don't have so many books available. Glad I can find something for this challenge, and so Norway is represented by Jo Nesbo and "The Redeemer".

I thought Kadare's Palace of Dreams was quite good.

Some people in this group have manage to put a map of where they have read books, which is kind of neat if you know how to do it (and I don't).

I have big plans for a map someday, vpfluke! I'm sure I'll figure it out..

Todays addition is "Inés of my soul" by Isabel Allende for Chile. Amazing how fast I can read when there's nothing else to do. And it makes me glad that I have manged to find books from so many different countries now that I have no access to bookstores and libraries.

Today I went for a short trip to Australia- a YA novel, Fighting Ruben Wolfe by Markus Zusak. That means I have now read all of his books, so he has to hurry up and write a new one! Actually, I'd rather wait for a bit if the book is worth waiting for.

I also found a book by Ismail Kadare that I may read as my next book.

So, now I've tried Ismail Kadare. It may not have been the best of matches, but the language was easy flowing and beautiful.

I really recommend "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I found it interesting and very easy to care about the characters. It was also an opportunity to learn something new that I didn't know very much about.

It's been a while, but finally I've read something that fits here. "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho for Brazil. I didn't like it, I guess because my opinion of freedom tends towards "freedom is just another word for nothing left to loose" and that is NOT the opinion of the book.

Two more books to add to my challenge! "Love in the time of cholera" by Gabriel García Márquez for Colombia, and "The Yacoubian building" by Alaa Al-Aswany for Egypt. I enjoyed "The Yacoubian building" a lot more than "Love in the time of cholera". Slowly but steadily I go around the world.

For Sudan, "Minaret" by Leila Aboulela. An interesting book, especially the spoiled childhood and how it's pictured when the main character isn't privileged anymore, and how her boyfriend just can't let go of who she was in the past.

A book for Algeria. I have some kind of knowledge of Algerian history, and that did help when reading this book. I didn't care for the book much otherwise, but it may be because I read the Swedish translation, and books originally written in French rarely do well when translated to Swedish, for some reason. I COULD have read it in French if I had struggled a bit, and had I found it in French. As it is, no, I didn't particularly care for this book.

A book for Ireland! "The perfect man" by Sheila O'Flanagan. Quite interesting relationships.

Added another book, for Germany this time. "Die Teufelsbibel" by Richard Dübell

For Russia a mystery featuring the lovely Anastasia Kamenskaja, by Alexandra Marinina

No surprise that Japan will be represented by Haruki Murakami- I love everyhting I've read by this author so far.

Slavenka Drakulic represents Croatia with her fables about the recent past in Eastern Europe. The Swedish version of the book is called "Katt i Warszawa", I believe it to be similar to "A guided tour through the museum of communism: Fables.."

A book by a Lebanese author. "Samarkand" by Amin Maalouf.

J just checked Samarkand out of the library, and have only read six pages, but it has caught my attention.

My $0.02 (for whatever they worth)

Cuba - Priapos by Daniel Chavarria
Greece - Little infamies by Panos Karnezis
Turkey (or Greece, or even Poland because of the author) - Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuściński
Mexico - Mexico City Noir by Paco Ignacio Taibo II
India (amongst others) - The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
USA - sth by Mailer or Kerouak I guess

Thank you so much trandism- I love getting new ideas!

A book by Anna Gavalda for France

I think it's safe to say I haven't been very active with this challenge lately.. But now an addition for Canada- The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. Maybe this is a new start!

Edited to add a book for Morocco, written by Saphia Azzedine.

Added a book for South Korea.

I'm still doing this challenge, but slowly, oh how slowly. Also Andorra? Does anybody know of an easily available book by a writer from Andorra? My own rules for this challenge was: a writer born in that country, who preferably also has lived in that country as an adult. Though I make exceptions..

Stumbled across your post by accident, but I do happen to know of an Andorran author (long story!) He has a website here: http://www.albertsalvado.com/en/ and seems to have books available on Amazon. Hope this is helpful and good luck with your challenge!

Thank you! I'll check him out!

I've broken my rules to be able to cross off North Korea from my list. Eunsun Kim was 12 years when she escaped from North Korea to China, and she hasn't been able to go back to her country after that. But I've decided her book about the escape counts as North Korean for my purposes.

Edited to add a book for Estonia, Anton Tammasaare´s The misadventures of the new Satan, an Estonian classic no less.

Added a book for Portugal, one by Antonio Lobo Antunes.

For Malaysia, Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho.

The last wish by Andrzej Sapkowski added för Poland.

For Iceland, Fælden av Lilja Sigurdadóttir

I am slowly adding to this challenge, now a few short stories from Indonesia, by Haji Ali Akbar Navis, Hamsad Rangkuti, Pramoyeda Ananta Toer, Siti Rukiah, Abdullah Idrus, Muhammad Kasim and Herman Kommer.

A book by Alain Mabanckou added for Congo-Brazzaville.