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100 books
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110 voters
Foreign Lands Books
Showing 1-50 of 1,543
A Thousand Splendid Suns (Hardcover)
by (shelved 17 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.46 — 1,742,758 ratings — published 2007
The Kite Runner (Paperback)
by (shelved 14 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.36 — 3,504,338 ratings — published 2003
Memoirs of a Geisha (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 12 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.16 — 2,113,610 ratings — published 1997
Life of Pi (Paperback)
by (shelved 8 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 3.94 — 1,756,839 ratings — published 2001
The Book Thief (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 8 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.39 — 2,888,868 ratings — published 2005
And the Mountains Echoed (Hardcover)
by (shelved 7 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.08 — 405,565 ratings — published 2012
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time (Paperback)
by (shelved 6 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 3.66 — 358,768 ratings — published 2006
Pachinko (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 6 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.34 — 630,214 ratings — published 2017
The Map of Salt and Stars (Hardcover)
by (shelved 6 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 3.92 — 20,653 ratings — published 2018
A Fine Balance (Paperback)
by (shelved 6 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.38 — 160,368 ratings — published 1995
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 6 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.09 — 388,067 ratings — published 2005
The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)
by (shelved 6 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.31 — 722,942 ratings — published 2001
The Poisonwood Bible (Paperback)
by (shelved 6 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.11 — 795,187 ratings — published 1998
In a Sunburned Country (Paperback)
by (shelved 6 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.07 — 122,417 ratings — published 2000
A Gentleman in Moscow (Paperback)
by (shelved 5 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.32 — 670,761 ratings — published 2016
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 5 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.46 — 100,126 ratings — published 2009
Outlander (Outlander, #1)
by (shelved 5 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.26 — 1,156,385 ratings — published 1991
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1)
by (shelved 5 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.18 — 3,455,721 ratings — published 2005
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #1)
by (shelved 5 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 3.81 — 276,171 ratings — published 1998
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Persepolis, #1)
by (shelved 5 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.27 — 231,280 ratings — published 2003
My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)
by (shelved 4 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.05 — 472,025 ratings — published 2011
In the Time of the Butterflies (Paperback)
by (shelved 4 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.15 — 79,687 ratings — published 1994
Between Shades of Gray (Hardcover)
by (shelved 4 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.37 — 277,808 ratings — published 2011
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (Hardcover)
by (shelved 4 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 3.98 — 116,976 ratings — published 2012
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe (Hardcover)
by (shelved 4 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 3.76 — 18,568 ratings — published 2011
Child 44 (Leo Demidov, #1)
by (shelved 4 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.11 — 90,122 ratings — published 2008
Night (Paperback)
by (shelved 4 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.38 — 1,367,998 ratings — published 1956
The God of Small Things (Paperback)
by (shelved 4 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 3.96 — 326,685 ratings — published 1997
The Namesake (Paperback)
by (shelved 4 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.02 — 284,510 ratings — published 2003
Eat, Pray, Love (Paperback)
by (shelved 4 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 3.65 — 1,846,538 ratings — published 2006
Love in the Time of Cholera (Paperback)
by (shelved 4 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 3.94 — 548,298 ratings — published 1985
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Hardcover)
by (shelved 4 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.16 — 194,440 ratings — published 2007
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow (Hardcover)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.45 — 117,723 ratings — published 2022
The Covenant of Water (Paperback)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.41 — 316,023 ratings — published 2023
I Must Betray You (Hardcover)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.40 — 99,527 ratings — published 2022
Honor (Hardcover)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.35 — 74,166 ratings — published 2022
My Sister, the Serial Killer (Hardcover)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 3.64 — 354,745 ratings — published 2018
The Death of Vivek Oji (Hardcover)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.12 — 68,340 ratings — published 2020
The Island of Sea Women (Hardcover)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.32 — 169,755 ratings — published 2019
The Henna Artist (The Jaipur Trilogy, #1)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.18 — 217,208 ratings — published 2020
Transcendent Kingdom (Hardcover)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.10 — 162,892 ratings — published 2020
The Secrets Between Us (Hardcover)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.50 — 10,960 ratings — published 2018
What the Wind Knows (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.36 — 111,884 ratings — published 2019
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster (Paperback)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.26 — 570,368 ratings — published 1997
Salt to the Sea (Hardcover)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.35 — 256,962 ratings — published 2016
I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban (Hardcover)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.16 — 625,053 ratings — published 2012
When the Moon is Low (Hardcover)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.12 — 17,161 ratings — published 2015
The Alchemist (Paperback)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 3.92 — 3,586,550 ratings — published 1988
The Nightingale (Hardcover)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.65 — 2,134,282 ratings — published 2015
The House of the Spirits (Paperback)
by (shelved 3 times as foreign-lands)
avg rating 4.30 — 321,534 ratings — published 1982
“Great growth comes from loneliness. You have time to develop, dwell in your own mind and go a bit mad. All great people are a bit mad. That’s good to remember. Don’t escape it.
Great growth comes from time spent in foreign lands, watching foreign people with foreign cultures. It makes you forget about your own land and race and town for a while. Great growth also comes from rooting yourself into one place from time to time. Unpack your bags, get a nice bed, a book shelf, some friends. Learn to show up, keep in touch, stick around.
Growth comes in all sort of forms and shapes, everywhere at all times, and it’s yours to take and consume. Do what ought to be done. Here and now, to get you somewhere — anywhere.”
―
Great growth comes from time spent in foreign lands, watching foreign people with foreign cultures. It makes you forget about your own land and race and town for a while. Great growth also comes from rooting yourself into one place from time to time. Unpack your bags, get a nice bed, a book shelf, some friends. Learn to show up, keep in touch, stick around.
Growth comes in all sort of forms and shapes, everywhere at all times, and it’s yours to take and consume. Do what ought to be done. Here and now, to get you somewhere — anywhere.”
―
“Spices"
The scents of spices are sad
whether at home or in foreign lands ...
At home, they passes through the nose
to give a ray of hope,
a breathing space
that make us forget – albeit for a short while –
all about the chains of religions, gossip,
the absurdity of politics,
and the cruelty of the ruling classes …
At home, spices help us cope with
the heavy weight of the backbreaking
customs and traditions …
You see everyone excited to have a meal
that help them forget about
the hardships, the crises,
and the unsuitability of life at home …
In alienating foreign lands,
The scent of spices awakens everything that was lost,
including the lost lands and homes…
There is something unbearably sad about the image of a woman
Standing in a kitchen filled with scents of spices reminding her
of all that happened,
all that was possible,
all that should never have happened,
and of all the irreplaceable losses …
So many are the societies that have been
completely destroyed,
and of which nothing remains but scents of spices
that add flavor to foods
and marinate the wounds …
Could spices be like old songs?
We love them at home because
they touch wounds we wish we could heal from,
the same old songs break our hearts in foreign lands,
because by then we have finally learned
that exile doesn’t heal wounds,
but rather pushes the knife deeper into them …
And like the alienating foreign lands,
the scents of spices declare
that there is much more
to the story of the wound;
a story that kills if untold,
and doesn’t heal when narrated …
[Original poem published in Arabic on December 11, 2023 at ahewar.org]”
―
The scents of spices are sad
whether at home or in foreign lands ...
At home, they passes through the nose
to give a ray of hope,
a breathing space
that make us forget – albeit for a short while –
all about the chains of religions, gossip,
the absurdity of politics,
and the cruelty of the ruling classes …
At home, spices help us cope with
the heavy weight of the backbreaking
customs and traditions …
You see everyone excited to have a meal
that help them forget about
the hardships, the crises,
and the unsuitability of life at home …
In alienating foreign lands,
The scent of spices awakens everything that was lost,
including the lost lands and homes…
There is something unbearably sad about the image of a woman
Standing in a kitchen filled with scents of spices reminding her
of all that happened,
all that was possible,
all that should never have happened,
and of all the irreplaceable losses …
So many are the societies that have been
completely destroyed,
and of which nothing remains but scents of spices
that add flavor to foods
and marinate the wounds …
Could spices be like old songs?
We love them at home because
they touch wounds we wish we could heal from,
the same old songs break our hearts in foreign lands,
because by then we have finally learned
that exile doesn’t heal wounds,
but rather pushes the knife deeper into them …
And like the alienating foreign lands,
the scents of spices declare
that there is much more
to the story of the wound;
a story that kills if untold,
and doesn’t heal when narrated …
[Original poem published in Arabic on December 11, 2023 at ahewar.org]”
―
