Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Happy New Year and new challenge. I'm starting off in England with an old fashioned mystery by A.A. Milne much better known for his Winnie the Pooh books.

1) England The Red House Mystery

Countries visited in 2020
England, Colombia, Poland, France, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Italy, Australia, Spain, Bosnia, Japan, Iran, China, Sweden, Belgium, USA, The Netherlands, Canada, Norway, Laos, Hungary, Afghanistan, Lithuania, Montecarlo, DRC, Russia, Czech Republic, Ireland, Greece, Tibet, Ethiopia, India, Guatemala, Ecuador, Syria, Ghana, The Philippines, New Zealand, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nigeria, Trinidad, Switzerland, Peru, Morocco, Turkey, Cambodia, Lesotho, Armenia, Micronesia, Ukraine

2) Colombia

Delirio by Laura Restrepo - there's an English translation Delirium. This is a gripping read. It's a little confusing to begin with as there are several narrators and the voice moves from one to another - sometimes within the same paragraph but it's worth persevering as the threads eventually combine. There's a reference to the Spanish Golden Age drama La vida es sueño Life is a dream by Pedro Calderón de la Barca so I may make that my next read as I need to read a book set in Poland.

3) Poland

La vida es sueño by Pedro Calderón de la Barca and I also read a translation Life is a Dream. Poland just happens to be a useful setting (a bit like Denmark for Hamlet). I need to see a performance now. This deals with interesting themes - what is reality, parent child relationships, who deserves to hold power.

4) France

After the Crash by Michel Bussi

Fast paced thriller, a real page turner.

5) Papua New Guinea

My Walk to Equality: Essays, Stories and Poetry by Papua New Guinean Women

Some interesting pieces but I felt I needed to know a bit more about PNG to really appreciate this.

6) Scotland

Bloody January by Alan Parks

Bleak detective story set in the underbelly of Glasgow in 1973

7) Wales

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Fantasy cleverly using old photographs.

Adding two more countries to my tourist travels, both books deal with the horrors of war in different ways.

8) Italy: The Mozart Question - Michael Morpurgo's glimpse into the holocaust and how being a musician was a way to survive. This is poignant, he's a master storyteller and the illustrations are beautiful. The story begins and ends in Venice.

9) Germany: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. I saw Sam Mendes' film 1917 while I was reading - both are hard going and disturbing but need to be read/seen, Mendes seems to have taken ideas from Remarque.

10) Australia: The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

(And a revisit to Colombia with Memories of My Melancholy Whores)

11) Spain: Homage to Murcia: A Season of Football Anarchy by Anthony Higgins, I don't normally read about football but wanted to find a book set in the Murcia region and this puts the football in the context of community with vignettes about history or politics. could have done with better editing

12) Bosnia & Herzegovina: The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway.

13) Japan: Silk by Alessandro Baricco, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein

This is set in both France and Japan.

14) Iran: The Little Black Fish by Bizhan Khodabandeh, this is a graphic novel based on The Tale of the Little Black Fish (ماهی سیاه کوچولو) by Iranian author Samad Behrangi.

15) China: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, original title Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise translated from the French by Ina Rilke.

16) Sweden: Quicksand: What It Means to Be a Human Being by Henning Mankell original title Kvicksand, translated from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson.

Not a chronological memoir but musings on many different subjects based on experiences from the writer's life. I found it grew on me, at the beginning it seemed to be a collection of diverse short articles but a thread develops which drew me in.

17) Flanders (Belgium) Meetings In No Man's Land by Marc Ferro with contributions by Malcolm Brown who has worked with the Imperial War Museum, Rémy Cazals, Olaf Mueller with translation from the French by Helen McPhail.

Fascinating to read the many accounts these historians have discovered about fraternisation not only with the Christmas truce of 1914 but at other times during WWI. I found it interesting to read a scholarly work about the war having recently read All Quiet on the Western Front.

18) The Netherlands The Cat Who Came in Off the Roof by Annie M.G. Schmidt original title Minoes translated from the Dutch by David Colmer

Engaging children's story featuring cats

19) USA The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Adding two more countries, both of these reads feature the sea

20) Canada: February by Lisa Moore

21) Norway: The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

22) Laos The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill. This is my first literary visit to Laos, I enjoyed the story, the characters and learnt a little about the country in 1976.

23) Hungary The Door by Magda Szabó translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix

This is a poignant story (possibly somewhat autobiographical) about the relationship that develops between the narrator and her cleaning lady and how through the stormy relationship that develops between them she learns more about herself and the world. A book I found hard to put down.

I have The Door on my TBR for this year. I am happy to see that you enjoyed it.

Adding two more countries

24) Afghanistan: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

25) Lithuania The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbøl & Agnete Friis
The translator is not given in my edition but an article from the New York Times says that Kaaberbøl| did the translation. The action takes place in both Lithuania and in Denmark

26) Monaco Moomin on the Riviera by Tove Jansson, this doesn't specify if it's France or Monaco but I've gone with Monaco as the Snork Maiden manages to win millions in the casino, so it sounded like Montecarlo to me!

27) Democratic Republic of Congo Heart of Darkness, with eBook by Joseph Conrad

28) Russia: February: Selected Poetry bilingual edition of poetry by Boris Pasternak with translations by Andrey Kneller

and a revisit to England & Spain with Jessie Burton's The Muse

29) Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia at the time this novel is set) Prague Spring by Simon Mawer, first time I've read this author, I'll be looking out for his other titles

Congrats on already finishing and passing more than 24 countries!

Diane wrote: "Congrats on already finishing and passing more than 24 countries!"


Thank you Diane, with so many interesting books I come across on other readers' threads there's always a new place waiting to be visited.

30) Republic of Ireland: Round Ireland With A Fridge by English comedian Tony Hawks

With any comic writing you tend to love it or hate it, I like Tony's slightly whimsical sense of humour and I've heard him speak at the Way with Words Festival and I was interested to have a second go at this. I first listening to the audio book as we were driving round Ireland in 2007. I still like it but realise much has changed in 23 years since he did his trip. A fun, light-hearted hitch around Ireland in the company of his fridge Saiorse.

31) Greece The Thread by Victoria Hislop. I learnt a lot about the history of Thessaloniki reading this.

32) Tibet: The Old Ways: A Journey On Foot by Robert Macfarlane

A fascinating exploration of the connection between the author and different landscapes through which he has walked. Most of the chapters deal with England and Scotland but there are three taking the reader further afield to Palestine, Spain and Tibet.

33) Ethiopia: The Barefoot Emperor: An Ethiopian Tragedy by Philip Marsden

I found this heavy going, but very well researched.

34) India: Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai

Very descriptive, Anita Desai evokes a stifling, dusty, family home in Old Delhi. Little joy and a fair amount of resentment and guilt in this read but an interesting look at family relationships.

35) Guatemala: Guatemala: Burden of Paradise

This 1992 publication with text by Duncan Green and paintings by John Keane follows the visit of a a group of artists belonging to the Association of Artists for Guatemala and published by the sadly missed Latin America Bureau.

36) Ecuador: Un viejo que leía novelas de amor

This really transported me to the rainforest, troubling and inspiring. It reminds you of the pleasure of reading but also of so called "civilised" man's tendency to destroy and treat nature as something to be exploited. Available in an English translation The Old Man Who Read Love Stories

I'm now going to read his children's story The Story of a Seagull and the Cat Who Taught Her to Fly

Sadly Luis Sepúlveda died recently in Spain of Covid-19.

I haven't read anything by Sepulveda, but I'm sorry to hear he died of Covid-19.

37) Syria: The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

Beautifully written but harrowing.

38) Ghana: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Following two branches of the same family through the generations. Has introduced me to episodes of history I didn't know.

39) The Philippines: Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan

Interesting to read a crime novel set in the 1990s in the Philippines with a Jesuit Priest as the sleuth.

40) New Zealand: The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

This has been on my to-read list for some time but I was prompted to read it when a friend posted some photos of the gardens in Hamilton which are the setting for the title story. A very enjoyable read, she skilfully evokes characters, atmospheres and places with few words. I have her collected stories so have several other volumes of hers to enjoy.

41) Dominican Republic Dominicana by Angie Cruz

Interesting read set in both the Dominican Republic and New York City about a teenager from a poor rural family made to marry a much older man who takes her to New York to a miserable life. When her husband has to return home for a couple of months she finally begins to blossom.

42) Mexico: La Reina del Sur (available in English as Queen of the South) by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

For me this was too long and too detailed probably because I had no empathy for the protagonist, Teresa Mendoza, nor any of the other characters involved in the various drug cartels and mafias. It definitely felt like a novel written by a journalist. For me the opening chapters and the final exciting chapter were the most interesting parts. However I was listening to the Spanish audio version and resorted to speeding up the narration. I chose Mexico as the book opens and closes violently in Sinaloa, Mexico.

43) Nigeria: My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Engaging and well written, dark comedy dealing with a relationship between sisters.

44) Trinidad: Trinidad Noir a collection of short stories, some are very black indeed. I listened to the audio version and enjoyed hearing the Caribbean voices of the narrators.

45) Switzerland: Slow Train to Switzerland: One Tour, Two Trips, 150 Years - and a World of Change Apart by Diccon Bewes Having also visited Switzerland on my first ever foreign holiday I found this engaging.

46) Peru: Simon Bolivar y Manuela Saenz: La Coronela y el Libertador

47) Morocco: Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud

48) Turkey (Lyrnessus/Troy): The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker. This was an absolutely gripping novel narrated by the captured and enslaved Briseis, a different perspective on the Trojan War. This is the first time I've read a book by Pat Barker but will definitely read more.

49) Cambodia: The Gates of Ivory by Margaret Drabble. Should I admit that this was my first ever book by Margaret Drabble? This is the third novel in a trilogy so there's a backstory which might have been useful to know. However although a bit rambling in places this was an interesting read.

50) Lesotho: In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut

51) Armenia: An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman translated from the Russian by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler.

52) Micronesia: My Urohs by Emelihter Kihleng

53) Ukraine: The Good Angel of Death by Andrey Kurkov translated from the Russian by Andrew Bromfield