TOP TEN TUESDAY | READING THE WORLD

 

This week’s topic is “Books That Take Place In Another Country.” I haven’t historically done the best job of reading my way around the world, and it’s something I know I need to work on (I also need to read more from my own country). But over the years I have read a selection of really fantastic books set elsewhere. Below are the ones that have stood out in my memory – some that are all-time favourites, others just had a lasting impression even if I didn’t love them at the time of reading. I’ve tried to divide them roughly geographically, but I’m not sure if I’ve got the right names for geographic areas, so forgive any mistakes.

Central and South America

                     

Before Night Falls – Reinaldo Arenas (Cuba)
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia)
Of Love and Shadows – Isabel Allende (Chille)
In the Time of the Butterflies – Julia Alvarez (Dominican Republic)
The Gold Eaters – Ronald Wright (Peru) 

Asia

           

The Strange Library – Haruki Murakami (Japan)
Forbidden City – William Bell (China)
A Son of the Circus – John Irving (India) 

Africa

         

Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
Black Dove, White Raven – Elizabeth Wein (Ethiopia)
Leaving Before the Rains Come – Alexandra Fuller (Zambia) 

Europe

                     

The Red Notebook – Antoine Laurain (France)
Hearts and Minds (and The Lie of the Land) – Amanda Craig (England)
Under the Tuscan Sun – Frances Mayes (Italy)
Blood On Snow – Jo Nesbo (Norway)
Hausfrau – Jill Alexander Essbaum (Switzerland) 

North America

      

The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas (USA)
If I Fall, If I Die – Michael Christie (Canada) 

Australia

 

The Songlines – Bruce Chatwin 

All over the world (books set in multiple countries)

                

The Size of the World – Jeff Greenwald
Travels – Michael Crichton
Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures – Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thompson
Along the Inca Road – Karin Muller

So that is probably a long enough list to be going on with! Some of these were recent reads that I know I still love, while others I read back in high school or before. The ones that aren’t reviewed on the site I’ve linked out to Goodreads, and those are the ones that I read at much younger points in my life. Because I read them such a long time ago, my memory of them is vague, so I can’t guarantee they would stand up to a re-read, and they also may have problematic elements in them I wasn’t able to recognize at the time. If any of you have read these, I’d love to hear what you thought of them. I’d also love to hear which books stand out to you that are set in other parts of the world from the one you live in!

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.