The Next Best Book Club discussion

So I was browsing through TNBBC and noticed there wasn't a spot to discuss my personal love - International Lit. The SuperMod was nice enough to set me up with a Discussion Topic.

This spot is for talking about your favorite book - fiction or non-fiction - by authors from other countries (even if they live here now), translations, or non-fiction books written about people & events outside the U.S.

Does anyone have a recommendation of a book they loved? I just finished The Hangman's Daughter, a thriller/mystery translated from German. What I liked most about it was that so many translations are literary fiction or heavy cerebral stuff. This was a good genre book that's perfect for the beach or the airplane.

i really enjoyed Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away - set in Nigeria and told through the eyes of an 11 year old

I'm also reading Out of Shadows right now which is set in Zimbabwe just after it became a republic (in a way) - pretty good read

A personal favorite of mine is author José Saramago - Portuguese writer whose works are (painfully) slowly being translated over into english.

I fell in love with his writing when I first read Blindness back in 2007, and have been equally impressed with every book I've read since.

Dee -

Both look really good... I love the cover of Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away and now it's on my wishlist!

Are you just interested in books about Africa? Have you read Agaat by Marlene Van Niekerk? It deals with the relationship between two women (one black, one white) in South Africa. I haven't started it yet, because my TBR pile is ridiculous, but I'm dying to! What intrigues me is the fact that it was originally written in Afrikaans.

Dee wrote: "i really enjoyed Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away - set in Nigeria and told through the eyes of an 11 year old



I'm also reading Out of Shadows right now which is set in Zimbab..."

Lori wrote: "A personal favorite of mine is author José Saramago - Portuguese writer whose works are (painfully) slowly being translated over into english.

I fell in love with his writing whe..."

I do want to read more Saramago. I have Death with Interruptionssitting on my shelf waiting for me. Are there really that many of his books still waiting to be translated??? I had no idea!

i like jsut reading stuff that is different - if you haven't, you should check out the around the world in 80 books challenge that Diane is hosting in this group - it really made me stretch my boundaries and I found some good stuff to read - some mysteries; and some other stuff

like Between Shades of Gray - a YA set in Lithuania/Siberia when Stalin annex'd the Baltic states during WW2

I just looked at Diane's group and am trying to figure out how to join. I really really want to try the Trekker category - but I know I'll only have a hope of succeeding if I sign up as a Frequent Flier.

Tara, I am waiting on a few of his books to be translated. CAIN is coming out soon.. (rubs hands greedily)

I read Agaat last year. It was a very interesting book, and to your point, dealt heavily with the relationship between two women of different backgrounds and experiences... a sick nurse and the old, suffering woman she is caring for.

its pretty easy - just start a thread that says like Tara - Frequent Flyer and join on in...you can back date books you have read since October last year if you want...or it will probably start over again in October if you want to join in then

i'm waiting impatiently for lots of the books from scandanavian authors to be translated and it really irks me when they will do book 1 in a series, then book 4 and miss the in between ones - argh!!!

The River Sutra by Gehta Meta When you read this book you will never be the same. I have tried to read it again but end up giving my copy away before I can finish it. :)

Coral wrote: "The River Sutra by Gehta Meta When you read this book you will never be the same. I have tried to read it again but end up giving my copy away before I can finish it. :)"

Thanks for the recommendation... I'm looking to read more Indian literature.

The Invisible Mountain is one I really enjoyed during my atwi80 books challenge. I like the lyrical feel of the writing.
Opposite that, Far Bright Star takes place in rural Mexico as US cavalrymen go on horseback to find Pancho Villa in the early 1900's. I felt the heat and dust, as well as the fear in the story as I read.

Linda wrote: "The Invisible Mountain is one I really enjoyed during my atwi80 books challenge. I like the lyrical feel of the writing.
Opposite that, [bo..."

I really loved Far Bright Star-

Just finished Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman- British. Really strong and funny, with a great anti-hero in Sinner Roach

Currently reading Hidden Camera by Zoran Živković. He's a Serbian writer.... lovely writing....

Lori - is that set in Serbia?

Not sure... I'm only two chapters in at the moment and it doesn't mention where this is taking place. I'm thinking it's a nameless town in a nameless country.

blah! I haven't hit serbia for my around the world challenge yet

Tara wrote: "Thanks for the recommendation... I'm looking to read more Indian literature."

Tara, I have some more recs for you!

The Death of Vishnu
The Toss of a Lemon
Evening Is the Whole Day
Between the Assasinations
The White Tiger

The Tiger's Wife, by Tea Obreht, was a wonderful book, and I'm thinking may have been partly in Serbia?

Thanks Mary, those a some great recommendations. The Toss of a Lemon is a wonderful title.

The only book I can recall, off the top of my head, that I've read by an Indian author was Chef: A Novel, which I didn't enjoy at all (which made me sad, because I really wanted to like it).

if you don't mind PI type mysteries - I liked The Case of the Missing Servant which is set in India, and while not india, I also liked The Coroner's Lunch which was set in Laos

Dee, I read The Case of the Missing Servant back when TNBBC invited it's author over for a discussion of the book....

It was fun...

I highly recommend Behind the Hood by Marita A. Hansen. This is a book about the other side of life in New Zealand. Powerful stuff. It is the first book in the series and Marita is currently working on both the second and third instalments. It is the group read for the Book Loving Kiwis group on GR during October, and Marita is available to answer questions.

Tara wrote: "So I was browsing through TNBBC and noticed there wasn't a spot to discuss my personal love - International Lit. The SuperMod was nice enough to set me up with a Discussion Topic.

This spot i..."

This is gonna be fun reading!

I know it spun off into its own group from here, but Diane used to host an around the world in 80 books challenge - it was kinda fun and i'm doing it for the second year and trying to hit 80 new countries

Dee - I saw that. I joined as well!

Jeane - I hope so! Any recommendations?

So I was curious.. would anyone be interested in doing a group read? I'm not suggesting we all read the same book. What if we all read books either set in, or written by authors from, the same country? For example: everyone reads a book from or about India. Or Argentina. Or France. Etc.

Then we could compare notes and see if there are any similarities, common themes, or just descriptions of places. If we liked our individual books or not. It'd be a great way to get recommendations for books and to learn about a country.

Let me know if anyone is interested.

I'm not sure if I can blame it on Stieg Larsson or not, but a ton of the foreign fic books I've been reading are thrillers and mysteries. I'm in the middle of The Secret in Their Eyes by Eduardo Sacheri. So far I'm really enjoying it.

Tara wrote: "So I was curious.. would anyone be interested in doing a group read? I'm not suggesting we all read the same book. What if we all read books either set in, or written by authors from, the same co..."
I think that sounds like a nice idea!

i'd be up for that...lol!

Russian author, who emigrated and living in Israel for a longer time then her living in Russia - Dina Rubina She is my favorite authors and she has tremendous books with a plot in Israel, Russia, Spain, Germany and other countries. One of her book I read recently - about Uzbekistan where she grown up. I'm not sure which of her books translated to English, so you can browse Good reads by her name to see her English versions

Hmmm... I thought I could create a poll in here but it seems like not. I'll be taking that up with the Super Mod! :-)

As soon as we get that taken care of, I'll put up a poll giving people the choice between 5-7 different countries. Whichever country gets the most vote is where we can start.

I had this large collection of just such books. Most of them were part of what I call my "Little Gems" collection ... very thin books of perhaps 60-200 pages, and almost all of them were written by foreign authors. Here's the problem. You don't find them in the big stores. You find them in the going-broke mom-and-pop stores that are so hard to find now. You find them by browsing up and down stairs and a maze of little hallways. They are all in storage now, and my brain is not large enough to remember their titles. But I thoroughly loved them ... very unique with very different perspectives and styles.

On the other hand, on the mainstream side, I love the works of Naquib Mahfouz, especially Adrift On The Nile, and his Palace Walk series. Most recently, the works of Carlos Ruis Zafon are terrific! Especially The Shadow of the Wind and The Prisoner of Heaven.
Throw in every single British writer, and you've got yourself some great reads!

Not sure of anyone recommended this yet...but a really intense read would be Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone... He currently lives in the United States, but he grew up in Sierra Leone as a child soldier and I believe he is still working with charities involving child soldiers in Africa.

another child solider book, more on the YA level is - Never Fall Down about the Cambodian killing fields

Melissa wrote: "Not sure of anyone recommended this yet...but a really intense read would be Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone... He currently lives in the United States, but he grew up in Sierra Leone as a child sol..."

Melissa, I checked this out on Amazon. Looks really good. Thank you for the recommendation ... going on my To Read list ... actually, my To Read VERY VERY Soon list.

I liked . Although portions are set in the US, it's mainly about a boy/ man named Deo and his survival of Burundi daily, life, civil war and genocide. Deo's goal is to complete medical school in the US to return Burnundi to help his people. While in the US, life is not as simple or easy. A good read. Differently, an eye opening reading experience.

Long Way Gone is a powerful book. Read it years ago but still remember several vivid scenes of Ishmael's horrifying experiences. Would love to read others like it.

Looking forward to read a book called "Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China" by Leslie Chang.

you could try Never Fall Down - its about a child soldier in Cambodia - it is tagged as fiction but based on a real story - the guy who is about provided input to it, but because he doesn't remember everything, there is potentially made-up stuff - hence the fiction

I just finished up The Polish Boxer - it was really wonderful. And while it's not exactly a short story collection, the chapters are divided up & self-contained like short stories, which makes it a quick read.

I recently read The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis from Germany.

It's about two teens, Anna, a good girl, and Abel, the school drug dealer. Anna is afraid of Abel until one day she see's him with his six year old sister and she over hears him telling her a magical fairy tale about a small queen on a dangerous journey. Anna gets to know Abel and learns that the fairy tale is based in reality. When Abel's mother disappears, he is at risk to losing his sister to his abusive father. As Anna falls in love with Abel, murders begin happening all over town and Abel is the only common factor.

It's really dark but strangely magical. Despite how cheesy the summary sounds, there's actually so much more than that. I highly recommend giving it a chance. If you're still not convinced, just look at some of the reviews!

Dee wrote: "i like jsut reading stuff that is different - if you haven't, you should check out the around the world in 80 books challenge that Diane is hosting in this group - it really made me stretch my boun..."

Hi Dee,

I loved this book even though the subject matter was really heart-wrenching. It was certainly an eyeopener for me.

An excellent book set in Pakistan/India is What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin. I believe she won the Commonwealth prize for this work.

Has anyone read Independent People, by Halldor Laxness? I picked it up on a trip to Iceland and I'm loving it!

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink.

For another book club's challenge, I read books from 10 countries and I thoroughly enjoyed them. It opened my eyes to the opportunities to read from more authors and several I've read more than one of their books.In addition to these, I've also read "The Girl Who ..." trilogy, "The Hangman's Daughter" (while I was in Germany!), Jose Salamanca and "A Beautiful Place to Die" by Malla Nunn (South Africa). Can't wait to read more like Bernhard Schlink (The Reader is on my to read list).

Ireland — Tana French's "In the Woods"
England — The Stranger House by Reginald Hill
Austria — Brenner and God by Wolf Haas
Belgium — Maigret and the Pickpocket, Georges Simenon
Pakistan — The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid
Australia — Heavenly Pleasures, Kerry Greenwood
Norway — The Bat, Jo Nesbo
Peru — Island Beneath the Sea, Isabel Allende
Spain — The Prisoner of Heaven, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Israel — Death on a Kibbutz, Batya Gur

I better stop; I could go on and on.

Oh you guys are GREAT! Thanks for all the recommendations!!!!!!!!

The Irish Country Doctor, Marian Keyes, Liane Moriarty are all out of the US. The Spice Mistress is wonderful for those of us loving the kitchen.
And what about the all-favorite No. #1 Ladies' Detective series! Sooooooooo good audio wise!

How about Lisa See and Amy Tan for domestic/foreign mixed?