In 2021, I created a goal for myself to read more books from countries that are not the USA. That goal has since transformed into my wanting to read at least one book from every country in the world.
Researching books to meet this goal quickly became a task of its own, a fascinating dive into the culture of literature around the globe.
So I had to lay some ground rules on what I considered a ‘book from another country.’ I consider a book from another country if:
A book had to be written by an author born in that country
Or
A book had to be translated from the language of that country
The List
The following is my running list of books from each country that meets this criteria. This is not a complete list and I will frequently return to this list to update it.
Notes:
- Bolded books are the ones I have read.
- NP stands for Nobel Prize and indicates books that have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, another goal of mine.
Total: 24/198 (~10%)
A (Read 2/11)
- Afghanistan — The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini or Mahmud Tarzi
- Albania
- Algeria
- Andorra
- Angola – Augstino Neto poetry
- Antigua and Barbuda — A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
- Argentina — Jorge Luis Borges
- Armenia — My name is Aram by William Saroyan or Rise the Euphrates by Carol Edgarian
- Australia — Voss by Patrick White (NP)
- Austria — The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek (NP)
- Azerbaijan
B (Read 1/17)
- Bahamas
- Bahrain – Poems by Ali Shargawi
- Bangladesh – Tagore or Anandamath by Bankim or A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
- Barbados
- Belarus — Voice from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich (NP)
- Belgium — Maurice Maeterlinck (NP)
- Belize
- Benin
- Bhutan — The Circle of Karma by Kunzang Choden or Treasure of Thunder Dragon by Queen Mother
- Bolivia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina — The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić (NP)
- Botswana – When Rain clouds gather by Bessie Head
- Brazil — Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis
- Brunei — The Fisherman King by Kathrina Mohd Daud
- Bulgaria — Elias Canetti (NP)
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
C (Read 3/18)
- Cabo Verde
- Cambodia — First they killed by father by Loung Ung or Tragic Tale of Tum Team
- Cameroon — The Old Man and the Medal or Houseboy by Ferdinand Oyono
- Canada — Herog by Saul Bellow (NP) or Dear Life by Alice Munro (NP)
- Central African Republic (CAR)
- Chad
- Chile — Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral (NP) or Pablo Neruda (NP)
- China — Red Sorghum by Mo Yan (NP) or Soul Mountain by Gao Zingjian (NP) or Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Dream of Red Chamber
- Colombia — 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (NP)
- Comoros
- Congo, Democratic Republic of the — Ruined by Lynn Nottage (PT)
- Congo, Republic of the
- Costa Rica — Mamita Yunai by Carlos Luis Fallas
- Cote d’Ivoire – Allah is not obliged by Ahmadou Kourouma
- Croatia
- Cuba — The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos (PT) or Cecilia Valdés by Cirilo Villaverde or Jardin by Dulce María Loynaz
- Cyprus
- Czechia — The Poetry of Jaroslav Seifert (NP) or Power to the Powerless by Vaclav Havel or Unbearable Lightness of Being
D (Read 1/4)
- Denmark
- Djibouti
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic — In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
E (Read 1/8)
- Ecuador
- Egypt — Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Estonia
- Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)
- Ethiopia — Notes from the Hyene’s Belly by Nega Mezlekia or The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
F (Read 1/3)
- Fiji
- Finland
- France — Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
G (Read 2/11)
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Georgia
- Germany — Collected Poems by Nelly Sachs (NP)
- Ghana — The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah or Homecoming by Yaa Gyasi
- Greece — The Odyssey by Homer
- Grenada
- Guatemala — Mr. President by Miguel Angel Asturias (NP)
- Guinea – The Radiance of The King by Cámara Laye
- Guinea-Bissau
- Guyana
H (Read 0/3)
- Haiti — Breath, Eyes, Memory or The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat
- Honduras
- Hungary — Fatelessness by Imre Kertész (NP)
I (Read 5/8)
- Iceland — Independent People by Halldór Laxness (NP)
- India — Short Stories from Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore (NP) or The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy or White Tiger by Aravind Adiga or The Mahabharata or The Ramayana or Premchand
- Indonesia — Saman by Ayu Utami or Beauty is a wound by Aka Kurniawan or Man Tiger
- Iran — The Blind Owl
- Iraq — Poems by Muttanabi or The Beekeeper by Dunya Mikhail or The Iraqi Nights by Dunya Mikhail
- Ireland — Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (NP)
- Israel — To the End of the Land by David Grossman or Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz or A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev
- Italy — The Divine Comedy by Dante
J (Read 1/3)
- Jamaica — Bone by yrsa daley-ward or Augstown by Kei Miller
- Japan — 1Q84 by Haruki Maruhai or Tale of Genji
- Jordan — Columns of Foam by Elias Farkouh
K (Read 0/6)
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya — Wizard of the Crow by Ngugui’wa Thiong’o
- Kiribati
- Kosovo
- Kuwait — Al Sabiliat by Ismail Fahd Ismail
- Kyrgyzstan — Epic of Manas or The Day Last More than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov
L (Read 1/9)
- Laos — Epic of Thao Hung Thao Chaeuang or Epic of Sang Sin Xay or (Modern) The Scared Buddha Image by Somchine Nginn
- Latvia
- Lebanon — Samarkand by Amin Maalouf or The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran or Poetry by Etel Adnan
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
M (Read 0/18)
- Madagascar – Beyond the rice fields by Naivo
- Malawi
- Malaysia – Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
- Maldives — Dhon Hiyala and Alifulhu (Maldivian Romeo and Juliet)
- Mali
- Malta
- Marshall Islands – Iep Jaltok by Kathy Kijiner
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Mexico — The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings by Octavio Paz (NP)
- Micronesia
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Mongolia — The Secret History of Monguls or (Modern) The Blue Sky by Galsan Tschinag
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Myanmar (formerly Burma) — Burmese Days by George Orwell or 13 Carat Diamond by Chin Myo Chit or The Road to wanting by Wendy Yaw-lone
N (Read 1/11)
- Namibia
- Nauru
- Nepal — Muna Madan by Laxmi Prasad Devkota
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- Niger
- Nigeria — Chimamanda Ngozi or Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka (NP)
- North Korea — Jackals by Han Sorya
- North Macedonia (formerly Macedonia)
- Norway — Sigrid Undset‘s Kristin Lavransdatter (NP)
O (Read 0/1)
- Oman — Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi
P (Read 1/11)
- Pakistan — Poems by Allama Iqbal
- Palau
- Palestine — Mahmoud Darwish or Men in the Sun by Ghassan Kanafani
- Panama — poems by Ricardo Miró or by Rubén Darío
- Papua New Guinea
- Paraguay
- Puerto Rico
- Peru — Conversations in the Cathedral or Traversuras de la nina mala by Mario Vargas Llosa (NP)
- Philippines — Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal
- Poland — Flights by Olga Tokarczuk (NP)
- Portugal — Blindness by José Saramago (NP)
Q (Read 0/1)
- Qatar — The Corsair by Abd Al Aziz Al Qursan
R (Read 1/3)
- Romania — Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller (NP)
- Russia —The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky or And Quite Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov (NP)
- Rwanda — The girl who smiled beads by Clemantine Wamariya or We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families
S (Read 0/26)
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia — Omeros by Derek Walcott (NP)
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- San Marino
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Saudi Arabia — Cities of Salt by Abdul Rahman Munif
- Senegal – So Long A Letter by Mariama Bo
- Serbia
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Singapore — State of Emergency by Jeremy Tiang
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Solomon Islands
- Somalia
- South Africa — July’s People by Nadine Gordimer (NP)
- South Korea — The Cloud Dream of the Nine by Kim Kuunmong or Who Ate Up All the Shinga by Park Wansuh
- South Sudan
- Spain — The Family of Pascual Duarte by Camilo José Cela (NP)
- Sri Lanka — The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje or Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Naomi Munaweera
- Sudan — Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih or Translator by Leila Aboulela
- Suriname
- Sweden — The Great Enigma by Tomas Tranströmer (NP)
- Switzerland
- Syria — Smile of Sadness by Ulfat Idilbi (not translated in English)
T (Read 1/12)
- Taiwan — The Stolen Bicycle
- Tajikistan — Rudaki (old poet) or Dekhunda by Sadriddin Ayni (not translated into English)
- Tanzania — Siku Njema by Ken Walibora
- Thailand — Epic of Khun Chang Khun Phaen or The Judgement by Chart Korbjitti
- Timor-Leste
- Togo
- Tonga
- Trinidad and Tobago — A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipaul (NP)
- Tunisia
- Turkey — My Name is Red or Snow by Orhan Pamuk (NP) or The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
- Turkmenistan — Poets by Berdi Kerbabayev (not in English) or Soul by Andrei Platonov
- Tuvalu- Tuvalu: A History
U (Read 2/7)
- Uganda — Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga
- Ukraine — Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex by Oksana Zabuzhko (or any of the books from this list)
- United Arab Emirates (UAE) — The Sand Fish by Mama Gargash
- United Kingdom (UK) — Shakespeare
- United States of America (USA) — East of Eden by John Steinback
- Uruguay — poems by
Juana de Ibarbourou (NP nominee 4x) or stories by Juan Carlos Onetti, Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano, La Tregua by Mario Benedetti - Uzbekistan — The Devil’s Dance by Hamid Ismailov or The Railway by Haman Ismailo vor Days Gone By by Abdullah Qodiriy or Poems by Ali-shir Nava’i
V (Read 0/3)
- Vanuatu — poems by Grace Molisa or Tôghàn by Marcel Melthérorong
- Vatican City (Holy See) — Excluded
- Venezuela — Las Lanzas Coloradas (The Red Lances) by Arturo Uslar Pietri (NP nominee 2x), poetry by Rafael Cadenas or Eugenio Montejo
- Vietnam — The Tale of Kieu by Nyugen Du
Y (Read 0/1)
- Yemen — They Die Strangers by Mohammad Abdul-Wali or The Hostage by Zayd Mutee Dammaj
Z (Read 0/2)
- Zambia — The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell (or any from this list)
- Zimbabwe – Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembega
Bonus Section
In my research, I have found certain parts of the world to have very deep histories of literature that I want to explore further. I have also begun to document those lists in this section.
Persion Poets
- Rudaki — father of Persian poetry
- Rabia Balkhi
- Ferdowsi — wrote Shanameh
- Omar Khayyam — Rubaiyat
- Sanai — The Walled Garden of Truth
- Nizami — Khamsa (5 love stories): Layla and Majnun, Khosrow and Shirin, Tale of Alexander, 7 Beauties, The Treasury or storehouse of Mysteries
- Attar- The conference of the birds
- Rumi ( no Colman barks translations)
- Saadi — Bustan (The Orchard), Gulistan (Rosę Garden)
- Hafez — Divan
- Forough Farrokhzid- modern poet
Urdu Poets
- Bashir Badr
- Ahmad Faraz
- Mirza Ghalib
- Faiz Ahmad Faiz
- Mir Taqi Mir
- Khwaja Altaaf Hussain Haali
- Allama Muhammad Iqbal
- Majeed Amjad
Hindi Poets
4 periods of hindi poems
- Aadi Kaal / Veer Gatha Kaal — a period when court poets created couplets in praise of brave warriors
- Bhakti Kaal — a period which poetry praises god
- Reeti / Shringar Kaal — a period which poetry celebrated love
- Adhunik Kaal — modern period
- Chand Bardai — made Prithviraq Roso (Aadi Kaal) first epic poem in hindi
- Tulsi Das- made Ramcharitmanas (Bhakti Kaal), Retelling of rahmana in Hindi
- Kabir Das (Bhakti Kaal)- Muslim, Rekhtas
- Malik Muhammad Jayassi (Bhakti Kaal)- Padmavat
- Makhanlal Chaturvedi (Reeti Kaal) — Made Himkrinti
- Maithili Sharan Gupt ( Adhunik Kaal)- Bharat Bharti (by Ghandi)
