Claire's Going Global At Last

Whilst I did promise I wasn't going to commit to any more reading challenges, I can't help but challenge myself to read my way through the lovely lists of countries here. I'm not putting any time pressure on myself. This one's a labour of love. I've read so much global lit up to this point that I'm also just starting afresh so everything here is going to be what I've read since setting up this thread. I'm looking forward to diving into all the wonderful recommendations I've found here!

Where Am I Now?

In Spain with Don Quixote.

1. Eastern Africa I

1.1 Burundi

1.2 Comoros

1.3 Djibouti

1.4 Eritrea

1.5 Madagascar

1.6 Malawi

1.7 Mauritus

1.8 Mayotte

1.9 Mozambique

1.10 Reunion

1.11 Rwanda

1.12 Seychelles

1.13 Tanzania (includes Zanzibar)

1.14 Zambia

1.15 Zimbabwe
Fiction We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

2. Eastern Africa II

2.1 Chad

2.2 Sudan

2.3 Ethiopia

2.4 Somalia

2.5 Kenya
Non Fiction Dreams in a Time of War by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o

2.6 Uganda

3. Middle Africa

3.1 Angola

3.2 Cameroon

3.3 Central African Republic

3.4 Chad

3.5 Congo (Brazzaville)

3.6 Democratic Republic of the Congo
Non Fiction Blood River by Tim Butcher

3.7 Equatorial Guinea

3.8 Gabon

3.9 Sao Tome and Principe

4. Northern Africa

4.1 Algeria

4.2 Egypt

4.3 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

4.4 Morocco

4.5 Tunisia

4.6 Western Sahara

5. Southern Africa

5.1 Botswana

5.2 Lesotho

5.3 Namibia

5.4 South Africa

5.5 Swaziland

6. Western Africa

6.1 Benin

6.2 Burkina Faso

6.3 Cape Verde

6.4 Cote d’Ivoire

6.5 Gambia

6.6 Ghana

6.7 Guinea

6.8 Guinea-Bissau

6.9 Liberia

6.10 Mali

6.11 Mauritania

6.12 Niger

6.13 Nigeria
Fiction My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Nonfiction Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay

6.14 Saint Helena

6.15 Senegal

6.16 Sierra Leone

6.17 Togo

7. The Caribbean

7.1 Anguilla

7.2 Antgua & Barbuda

7.3 Aruba

7.4 Bahamas

7.5 Barbados

7.6 British Virgin Islands

7.7 Cayman Islands

7.8 Cuba

7.9 Dominica

7.10 Dominican Republic

7.11 Grenada

7.12 Guadeloupe

7.13 Haiti

7.14 Jamaica

7.15 Martinique

7.16 Monserrat

7.17 Netherlands Antilles

7.18 Puerto Rico

7.19 St. Kitts and Nevis

7.20 Saint Lucia

7.21 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

7.22 Trinidad & Tobago

7.23 Turks & Caicos Islands

7.24 US Virgin Islands

8. Central America

8.1 Belize

8.2 Costa Rica

8.3 El Salvador

8.4 Guatemala

8.5 Honduras

8.6 Mexico

8.7 Nicaragua

8.8 Panama

9. South America I

9.1 Brazil

9.2 Colombia
Fiction The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez

9.3 Ecuador

9.4 French Guiana

9.5 Guyana

9.6 Peru

9.7 Suriname

9.8 Venezuela

10. South America II

10.1 Argentina

10.2 Chile
Fiction Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

10.3 Bolivia

10.4 Paraguay

10.5 Uruguay

10.6 Falkland Islands

11. Asia I

11.1 Afghanistan

11.2 Pakistan

11.3 Nepal

11.4 Georgia

11.5 Azerbaijan

11.6 Armenia

11.7 Kazakhstan

11.8 Kyrgyzstan
Fiction Jamilia

11.9 Tajikistan

11.10 Turkmenistan

11.11 Uzbekistan

12. Asia II

12.1 China
Fiction Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke

12.2 Mongolia

12.3 Taiwan

12.4 Hong Kong

12.5 Macao

12.6 Tibet

13. Asia III

13.1 Japan
Fiction Silence by Shusako Endo
Non-Fiction The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida

13.2 South Korea
Fiction The Vegetarian by Han Kang
13.3 North Korea
Non-Fiction The Aquariums of Pyongyang by Kang Chol-Hwan

13.4 the Philippines

14. Asia IV

14.1 Myanmar

14.2 Thailand

14.3 Cambodia

14.4 Vietnam

14.5 Laos

14.6 Malaysia

14.7 Singapore

14.8 Indonesia

14.9 Brunei

14.10 Timor Leste

14.11 Maldives

14.12 Brunei

15. Asia V

15.1 India
Fiction Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai

15.2 Sri Lanka

15.3 Bangladesh

15.4 Bhutan

16. Middle East I

16.1 Turkey

16.2 Lebanon

16.3 Syria

16.4 Palestine

16.5 Israel

17. Middle East II

17.1 Bahrain

17.2 Jordan

17.3 Kuwait

17.4 Oman

17.5 Qatar

17.6 Saudi Arabia

17.7 United Arab Emirates

17.8 Yemen

17.9 Iraq
Fiction The Iraqi Christ by Hassan Blasim

17.10 Iran

18. Oceania

18.1 Australia

18.2 Fiji

18.3 French Polynesia

18.4 Guam

18.5 Kiribati

18.6 Micronesia

18.7 New Caledonia

18.8 New Zealand

18.9 Papua New Guinea

18.10 Samoa

18.11 American Samoa

18.12 Solomon Islands

18.13 Tonga, Vanuatu

19. Europe I

19.1 France

19.2 Monaco

19.3 Belgium

19.4 The Netherlands

19.5 Luxembourg

20. Europe II

20.1 Iceland
Fiction The Whispering Muse by Sjon

20.2 Norway

20.3 Sweden

20.4 Finland

20.5 Denmark

20.6 the Faroe Islands

20.7 Svelbard & Jan Mayen Islands

21. Europe III

21.1 Estonia

21.2 Latvia

21.3 Lithuania

21.4 Russia

21.5 Belarus

21.6 Ukraine
Non-fiction Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich
21.7 Moldova

21.8 Romania

22. Europe IV

22.1 Turkey

22.2 Greece

22.3 Cyprus

22.4 Bulgaria

22.5 Serbia

22.6 Albania
Fiction Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare

22.7 Bosnia & Herzebovinia

22.8 Croatia

22.9 Kosovo

22.10 Macedonia

22.11 Montenegro :O)

23. Europe V

23.1 Italy
Fiction Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

23.2 Vatican City

23.4 San Marino

23.5 Malta

24. Europe VI

24.1 Poland
Fiction Marzi by Marzena Sowa

24.2 Slovakia

24.3 Hungary

24.4 Czech Republic

24.5 Slovenia

25. Europe VII

25.1 Spain

25.2 Portugal

25.3 Andorra

25.4 Gibraltar

26. Europe VIII

26.1 Switzerland

26.2 Austria
Fiction The Golem by Gustav Meyrink

26.3 Germany
Non-Fiction Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky

26.4 Liechtenstein

12.1 CHINA

Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke
Translator: Cindy Carter

Bitingly satirical and bleak, this book describes the death of a village from AIDS, acquired from dirty needles and equipment during the blood selling boom in China. It's a harsh portrayal of China through the microcosm of the village of Ding and its inhabitants but it is also a damning indictment of human nature at its worst, potentially applicable to all nationalities. Yan Lianke has faced some criticism for the self-censorship he employed (futilely it would seem) to ensure that his work was not banned in China on first publication. A quick search around the internet for interviews shows that he made a conscious choice to narrow his focus to the level of the individual village rather than the whole blood selling system and its international connections. I would disagree with the criticism levelled at him for that decision because I think a thoughtful reader can see the broader criticism in the text. Fiction is not an academic history book and sometimes intelligent fiction can lead the reader to independently dig deeper in a topic. I don't read in Chinese so I can't compare this translation to the original, however, it reads very well and the translator's style seems well-matched to the text - it's not stilted or clunky. Definitely well worth reading if you haven't already.

That one sounds very interesting. I have wishlisted it and hope I can get to read it this year.

20.1 ICELAND

The Whispering Muse by Sjon
Translator: Victoria Cribb

I'm on the fence with this one. Quirky, humorous and satirical, it certainly had some of the magic I associate with Sjon's writing but sometimes it just didn't quite work for me. A comical buffoon of a protagonist (who published a journal on the consumption of fish and its link to Icelandic superiority) sets sail on a working boat for a cruise that he received as a gift and this is the backdrop for a dual-sided narrative: his experience of the cruise and the layered myths that the ship's storyteller recounts each evening for the entertainment of the passengers and crew. An interesting perspective on the nature of narrative tradition and storytelling (but something I think was explored better by Philip Pullman in The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ) and while whimsical, lacking in the true magic I found in The Blue Fox, my first experience of Sjon.

23.1 ITALY

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Translator: William Weaver

Calvino recounts a traveller's description of many imaginary cities in a beautiful piece of wordcraft. I love his use of language and the truly unusual way he leads the reader to re-examine and re-imagine the world we ourselves inhabit. Calvino may not be for everyone but if he catches your imagination, this book will transport you on a unique journey.

13.3 NORTH KOREA

The Aquariums of Pyongyang by Kang Chol-Hwang
Translator: Pierre Rigolout

I read this non-fiction account of the author's formative years spent in a North Korean internment camp at the same time as North Korea: A State of Paranoia by Paul French, which provided a solid background to this personal account. The allure of North Korea lays in its overwhelming isolation and mystery so a first hand account of the life for individuals who spend significant portions of their lives in concentration/internment camps for perceived slights against the state has great appeal. This book was an interesting window on that. The compelling nature of the subject matter went someway to balancing out the less exciting prose. That said, it wasn't a tough read at all. Definitely worth a look if this part of the world intrigues you.

6.13 NIGERIA

Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay (Audiobook)

I didn't embark on this book as a Reading Globally book but by the time I finished it, I realised that it was intimately linked to Nigeria. Poet and author Jackie Kay weaves the story of her search for her birth parents - her mother in the conservative confines of a Scotland of the past, her father at the end of a red dust road in Nigeria, one that brought him to Scotland for scholarship and that leads Kay back to her Nigerian homelands for the first time as an adult. Spinning the tale from words which lend hope to an otherwise difficult piece of personal and social history, Kay's narration pulls you into this journey along the red dust road to her past and one view of Nigeria's present. As a writer, she crafts characters that are alive in the narration and I left the book feeling that I had walked some of the way on that road alongside her, marvelling at both the foreignness and the familiarity of the Nigeria envisaged here. The narrative moved between time-frames but this shifting landscape was always tied to the road of discovery Kay was travelling and for me, this added to the music of the book. I would definitely recommend listening to this on audio as Kay's narration brings a small measure of magic to the story that my internal voice would have lacked.

17.9 IRAQ

The Iraqi Christ by Hassan Blasim

Translator: Jonathan Wright

I picked this up whilst browsing in a bookshop at St Pancras' Station. Nothing beats the random, amazing gems that you find when waiting for trains with a bank card and poor impulse control. I really do love well-written short stories - when an author understands that a short story is an art form to be perfected rather than just a shorter piece of fiction writing - and these stories were so well-written. They all have some kind of connection to contemporary Iraq but Blasim writes superbly off-beat stories which lead you somewhere you are surprised to go. When I bought this, I thought that it may represent a collection of tales that form some kind of overt description of the years of war but instead, whilst always present, the conflict-state and the violence are often alluded to in such a subtle and original way that it takes you by surprise. This is a collection that I really will come back to and read for a second time because for me it was exactly that, a collection, a whole entity. Having reached the end, I feel that I need to come back and reread the earlier stories because I know that my perspective and reception of them will now have changed. I can strongly recommend this to anyone with an interest in short fiction or translated writing.

1.15 ZIMBABWE

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

This is a novel where character voice positively sings - with such a rich selection of characters (young and old), that makes for a hugely engaging story. From the monetary poverty of the shanty town called Paradise to the cultural poverty of an immigrant's life in America, Darling comes alive and opens a window into a world we rarely see for what it is in the current political and financial climate: the life of a migrant child separated from her family and culture in the hope that it would give her a 'better' life. It's a novel of otherness - the choices made by Darling's family for her security and well-being ultimately separate her from her birth culture and family but never quite manage to integrate her into the new life she inhabits. This is a really worthwhile read. I'd highly recommend it.

9.2 COLUMBIA

The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez

There's something about literature from South America that just catches me and this was no exception. A murderous event affects two male acquaintances - one tragically and one irreparably. This book revolves around the surviving man's quest to reclaim himself, albeit a different version of, by filling in the gaps of the life history of his companion on the street the day that shots are fired. It's less a rebuilding and more an excavation - digging into the past of the man he knew so little of, Antonio unearths parts of himself but also he unearths the chequered history of a nation blighted by conflict and deeply affected by the drugs trade. Eventually, among the ruins of Escobar's mansion, shared experience highlights the ruins of the lives that lie equally abandoned. The combination of the reader's need to fill in the blanks of what happened one tragic day on the streets of Bogota and the evocative description of a complex country with a difficult history, make for a compelling read.

13.2 SOUTH KOREA

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

This is a tough one to rate. Told from 3 different perspectives, it is a bleak little book that details the mental deterioration of a woman, enacted through her withdrawal from reality and her descent into an extreme vegetarian lifestyle which is contrary to all cultural norms. It was a very well-written book and I can see why the author made stylistic choices she did but I really didn't like this book. There wasn't a single character I liked or empathised with. For me, this meant it was more of a technical exercise in reading (of which is was an exemplary example) than a pleasurable experience.

6.13 NIGERIA

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite



⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I loved this audiobook. It was darkly comic in places, hugely evocative of place, and every character was crafted with richness and an attention to small details that meant that they lived and breathed off the page. I would definitely recommend it - it's a quick read or listen. The audiobook narrator was superb, too.