Recommend a book from your country of origin/residence

I'm hoping that the locations of group members are as diverse as their interests and that there are librarythingers from around the globe who'll respond. I feel like a lot of really good literature from around the world gets overlooked, especially since it's hard enough sometimes for them to be translated into other languages. For example I know a grand total of two Icelandic authors: Halldor Laxness and Arnaldur Indridason. In America anyway, sometimes one author from another country is so lavished with praise, that you never hear about any others here (like say Margaret Atwood).

So... what book would you suggest is a must read that was written by an author from your home country?

Definitely Arturo's Island and House of Liars, both by Elsa Morante. Anything by Italo Calvino.
These are my suggestions for Italy.

I am going to recommend A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews , Natasha by David Bezmozgis and Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels for Canada- as well as anything by Margaret Atwood!

I live in the US. It's awfully hard to pick one quintessential American novel; but for some reason, The Brothers K by David James Duncan keeps wanting to be my pick. There are a lot of classics that may be better choices, but this more contemporary novel covers a lot of Americana - largely white middle class though. I would have to pick another ten or twenty or more to embrace the spectrum of life in the US. Perhaps Huck Finn; or To Kill a Mockingbird?

American Pastoral by Philip Roth is another good recent US book that gives a deep picture of contemporary middle class US, as impacted by the 60s.

Touchstones are very weird right now.

From France:

Romain Gary's Roots of Heaven although the book has only come out in one edition (in the states) and so you can't get it through regular Amazon. But truly a spectacular book.

I'm picking my previous country of residence this year, Japan. I recommend The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki (why do my author touchstones not work anymore?) . The novel is a loosely plotted chronicle of several years in the lives for a formally noble Japanese family. A bit of structure comes from their attempts to find a satisfactory husband for one of the sisters. Even though the book reads a bit slowly, I really loved how authentic the characters and their interactions seemed. I feel like it's a very good window into Japanese culture. I'd particularly recommend it to people who enjoy writers like Jane Austen. The subject matter is similar, but the culture is different.

A must read from the United States?

Well, I'd put Nathaniel West's Miss Lonelyhearts, Willa Cather's Death Comes to the Archbishop, and James Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice on the list, as each is quintessentially American and easily accessible.

For those who love to slog through massive and profund literature, Moby Dick of course.

cestovatela, I loved The Makioka Sisters when I read it. Such a great book.

Like others, I'm from the US so the choices to recommend are perhaps overwhelming. The only US book to make my top 10 this year (of course, I haven't been read as much anglo literature the 2nd half of the year) is The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates. While highly recommended, it's NOT a book I'd tell someone who doesn't live here to start with:-)

I've lived in The Hague for 20 years, and though I'm still shamefully ignorant about Dutch literature, I'd like to nominate Eline Vere by Louis Couperus. It's the classic novel of bourgeois Den Haag society at the end of the 19th century, and it stands up very well next to contemporaries like Arnold Bennett and Thomas Hardy (not bad - one out of three for author touchstones!).

The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass has to be the best I can think of (I'm German-American).

I second the Canadian recommendation of A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews (I almost have to like it since the protagonist has the same surname as me). Canada has a lot of great writers who have immigrated here, but don't really write about Canada (Rohiton Mistry, Michael Ondaatje to name just two), so you don't really get a "Canadian" sense from their books. Here are a few worthwhile books that are set here in Canada:

Unless, by Carol Shields
The Sad Truth About Happiness, by Anne Giardini
A Map of Glass, by Jane Urquhart
Stanley Park, by Timothy Taylor

I have to admit I don't read too many Swiss authors. But you can't go wrong with Max Frisch (for example Homo Faber or Stiller). Another really good Swiss author is Friedrich Dürrenmatt. I have only read The Judge and his Hangman though. Also Anna Göldin by Eveline Hasler is a very interesting book about the last witch in Switzerland. I didn't like the writing style though and I couldn't find out if there's an English translation.

Unfortunately I can't think of a contemporary book I really, really liked. But I haven't read that many. Quatemberkinder by Tim Krohn is very interesting, but I don't think it has been translated into English.

My favorite Swiss author is Franz Hohler, but as so many good Swiss authors he has never been translated into English. Or so I think.

One more Canadian author . . . Douglas Coupland. He's best known for Generation X, but I personally loved Eleanor Rigby.

For older Canadian authors, there is always Hugh MacLennan known for Two Solitudes about French vs. English life in Montreal of 60-70 years ago.

And I can't pass up The Rebel Angels, my introduction into Robertson Davies. This is set in Toronto at the University.

For Austria, I don't know of any contemporary literature which has been translated into english. But you can never go wrong with the classics: I recommend The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth. And if you wanna read something really "viennois", have a look at Tante Jolesch by Friedrich Torberg. Amazon says there will be a translation soon (announced for Dec 30).

For Denmark I recommend The Realm of The Dead by Henrik Pontoppidan, Havoc by Tom Kristensen and The Fishermenn written by Hans Kirk.

Ireland: the list is long, and I could reel off plenty of luminaries such as Seamus Heaney, William Trevor, Colm Tóibín, John Banville, Bernard MacLaverty, Patrick McCabe, Ronan Bennett, Colum McCann, Claire Keegan or Anne Enright (just to name some wonderful contemporary authors - don't get me started on the classics!), but to my mind, the best of them all is the late, lamented John McGahern, the finest Irish writer that I've ever read. It's hard to highlight one or two - if I must, then I would go for Among Women and That They May Face the Rising Sun - but, really, everything he wrote, particularly the short stories, was simply superb.

For those looking for a work of fiction dealing specifically with the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the most brilliant one I've read in recent years is This Human Season by Louise Dean - it's a magnificently cold, warm, sympathetic, brutal, sad and hilariously funny book, and gives an excellent picture of the times (set in 1979/80).

So much for my country of origin. As for my country of residence, I cannot sing the praises of (the also late, lamented) W.G. Sebald highly enough: A German author who lived and worked in the country of my birth (just to round things off neatly!). I read The Emigrants in German in 1997, and have been devoted to him ever since. His death was a terrible, terrible loss.

Touchstones revolting.

From Canada:
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
Baltimore's Mansion by Wayne Johnston
From Stone Orchard by Timothy Findley
The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
Tamarind Mem by Anita Rau Badami
The Hero's Walk by Anita Rau Badami
Have You Heard the Nightbird Call? by Anita Rau Badami
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies - this whole trilogy is brilliant
The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks by Robertson Davies
Stolen Continents: the Americas through Indian Eyes Since 1492 by Ronald Wright
The Rituals of Dinner by Margaret Visser
Leonard Cohen
Al Purdy

and, of course and always, Margaret Atwood

ETA: how could I have not mentioned Margaret Laurence! Stone Angel, A Jest of God, etc.

And a particular favourite of mine: Sharon Butala, a writer from Saskatchewan.

Elizabeth Hay just won the Giller too!

While browsing my library for books from the states to recommend, I realized how wannabe-cosmopolitan I am--a good portion of my books, even ones by American authors, are not really American. Books I read . . . different story. But then, that's the library and my family's choice of books.

For some reason, books set in New Jersey stick out as most American to me, although I've never lived there, and despite having family there have spent remarkably little time experiencing Jersey. But I absolutely must recommend Megan McCafferty's Jessica Darling books, starting with Sloppy Firsts and continuing through Fourth Comings. Also Born Confused, by Tanuja Desai Hidier, has caused me much white-girl envy every time I read it.

Closer to my home, and also further, is Neil Gaiman's American Gods--not many places I know well show up in the novel, but he got the drive into Chicago westbound on I-90 pitch-perfect.

And for some reason I want to recommend Lemony Snicket here, even though you might not think of A series of Unfortunate Events as American. But it totally is, I just did a term paper on it and it was totally right.

(Relatively urban midwestern 18-year-old female, because demographics can be fun sometimes.)

Quite alot from Australia generally, but one that is state specific for me is A.B Facey's A Fortunate Life. Set in Western Australia after the WW1 and is a memoir.

I recommend anything written by Tove Jansson. One of my favourite is Tales from the Moominvalley. The English title is unimaginative. The original Swedish title is Det osynliga barnet, The invisible child. The Moomin books are tagged as children's books, but they have lots to offer for adults, too.

Tove Jansson was Finnish and her native language was Swedish (the other official language of Finland).

Another from Finland, my long time favourite is Leena Krohn. She has been writing since the 70s, but not very much is available in English, more so in other languages.

But one that is is Tainaron : mail from another city, and you may even read it online at (browser readable and pdf):

http://www.kaapeli.fi/krohn/tainaron/english/3/leena_krohn/tainaron.leena_krohn....

Thanks, eairo and anneli. I've been hearing good things about Finnish writing lately and wish there were more books in translation.

Tricky... the first three books of Australan authors that comes to mind are The Book Thief, The Riders, and Shiver. The tricky part is, that none of these are actually set in Australia. Maybe Three Dog Night ?

Any book by Boris Akunin that is translated into English (I read all of them in Russian and a couple of those translated into English and I can say both originals and translations were very good).

Here is the link to wikipedia article on this very popular and greatly entertaining Russian author:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Akunin

His Erast Fandorin series is my favourite. These books are set in Imperial Russia and based on some interesting historical facts. Highly recommended to those who are interested in history of Russia and are into a more light and entertaining reading. Here is Akunin's website (a great website it is), it's all in Russian though:
http://akunin.ru/

For exemplary Australian writing: anything by Patrick White.

From Norway: The Cross by Sigrid Undset

I really enjoyed the Kristin Lavransdatter's trilogy, when I read it years ago, farko!

I read the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy when I was in high school and again about 20 years ago -- it has truly stayed with me -- a wonderful look at medieval Scandinavia -- from a reader of Swedish descent.

For the US -- anything by Toni Morrison, but especially, Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise -- a trilogy of the African-American experience that is unsurpassed.

From New Zealand: Plumb by Maurice Gee is the best New Zealand novel I have read, but the same author's newer Ellie and the Shadow Man comes close. If you really want the Gothic flavour of rural New Zealand, then you can't go past the books of Ronald Hugh Morrieson, such as The Scarecrow and Came A Hot Friday. Other good'uns include novelists Patricia Grace and Witi Ihimaera and short story writers Owen Marshall and of course Katherine Mansfield. Finally, for a New Zealand childhood refracted through the prism of books, I really like Book Book by Fiona Farrell.

The Bone People is one of my favorite NZ books. Not that i've read many, i'm ashamed to say. Thanks for the suggestions, senjmito.

> 32: I have tried to read The Bone People twice and never managed to finish it. People seem to either love or hate this book - I'm glad you enjoyed it, MrAndrew. As for Mister Pip, NZ literature's other big international success, I thought it was 4/5 of an excellent book, but tailed away badly towards the end. I guess I'm just contrary!

>33 timjones: I agree re: Mister Pip entirely. Sad, really, because the first 2/3rds was excellent, I thought.

I'm ready to pick up The Makioka Sisters on the recommendations made here!

Hailing from Toronto as both small town Ontario and immigrant city, books I'd recommend (as others have above) would include a few representative titles from the Southern Ontario Gothic category: Robertson Davies's Deptford Trilogy, Alice Munro's Lives of Girls and Women, Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye.

Books coming out of Toronto the immigrant city might include Judy Fong Bates's Midnight at the Dragon Cafe, Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion, Dionne Brand's What We All Long For, Anne Michael's Fugitive Pieces.

There's more. I'm still reading!

Edited: added Michael's book

I'm only a beginner when it comes to Vietnamese literature but I'd recommend Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong. It a tough and depressing read, but beautiful in its way. As an American in Vietnam, I'd also recommend The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.

From Belgium, my country of residence, anything by Amelie Nothomb, in particular her semi-autobiographical novels, eg Metaphysique des tubes (The Character of Rain, Touchstones tells me), Stupeur et tremblements (Fear and Trembling), or Biographie de la faim.

--> 37

I'm not from Belgium, but I *love* the writing of Amelie Nothomb It's so unusual. What a great suggestion, rachbxl! My favorite of hers is The Stranger Next Door: A Novel which has one of the strangest characters I've ever encountered in a novel.

Thanks, SqueakyChu. I'm not Belgian either, but when I first moved here and was asking about local writers, it was Nothomb that everyone told me about. I've read the novel you mention as well, and I agree - a very odd character!

I'm so exited! I never knew another person who read that book (although I'm sure many others have). Nothomb is not well known or read in the US. :-(

If you look at my library I have most of her books. Only missing 2 I think. But I'm French so that's how I know of her -- she's really popular in France. :)

My favorites being:
Hygiene de l'assassin
Stupeurs et tremblements
Metaphysiques des tubes
Les combustibles

Pretty good:
Cosmetique de l'ennemi

Decent:
Antechrista
Attentat
Acide sulfurique

I didn't really care all that much for:
Mercure (the double ending killed the book for me)
Robert des noms propres

Still need to read:
Journal d'hirondelle
Biographie de la faim
Ni d'eve ni d'adam
Peplum
(And one other I can't think of)

Great - more Nothomb fans!
lilisin - maybe the book you can't think of is the one with the weird neighbour, as it's not on your list - Les catilinaires. I enjoyed that one, but my favourites so far are Biographie de la faim, Metaphysique des tubes and Stupeur et tremblements. I've got several others on my TBR pile, and just managed to resist buying two more at lunchtime today!

Ha, thanks rachbxl. I actually have read that one but never added it to my list of books. It was one of the books I'd put under "didn't care for it all that much".

Maybe I'll pick up "Biographie de la faim" next. :)

ETA: The one I forgot was "Le sabotage amoureux" which I have not read yet.

Great books about Trinidad and Tobago:

The Dragon Can't Dance by Earl Lovelace. It's about Carnival, the costumes the colour, the music and the customs, but it's really about alienation and finding your place in this world. Do you face it directly, or do you need a mask to protect you from it.

The Jumbie Bird The Jumbie Bird is the local name for the owl, which is a symbol of death, hence the name jumbie, which is a ghost or evil spirit in our culture. Looks at the experience of Indians in Trinidad, recently indentured and struggling to find your way in this new land that is not quite your own, yet. I wanted the jewelry described in the book, and witness the beauty and violence of stick fighting.

Samuel Selvon's The Lonely Londoners tells the tale of Trinidadian expats in London town, poignant and funny. His A Brighter Sun tells Tiger's story of going up and becoming a man.

The Virgin's Triangle by Kevin Baldeosingh is a funny story about a young woman and the romantic decisions she has to make. A great look at modern Trinidad.

Beyond a Boundary is on the surface a book about cricket, but it's really about Trinidad's journey towards independence...His writing is a dream.

Oh yea, there's this guy called V.S. Naipaul he won like a Pulitzer or something...

Canada's Giller Prize longlist for Fiction has just been announced. There are some very good novels on the list here:http://freshinkbooks.blogspot.com/

For the United States:

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Age of Innocence, House of Mirth, and Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellsion - in my opinion the great American novel of the 20th century
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
For sheer humor Straight Man by Richard Russo
Native Son by Richard Wright
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Modern Chivalry by H. H. Brackenridge - an early example of late 18th-century Southern humor
Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis
Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
Bailey' Cafe by Gloria Naylor
Boston Adventure by Jean Stafford
Benito Cereno by Herman Melville - also his short stories like "Bartleby the Scrivener" and "The Paradise of Bachelors, The Tartarus of Maids"
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon without the logarrhea of his works like Gravity's Rainbow
For science fiction The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness, or The Telling by Ursula LeGuin
And of course the usuals by Mark Twain

It's really hard to narrow here.
#1 Thanks for starting this thread. It's great. And thank you everyone else for contributing.

P.S. Someone needs to find almigwin and LolaWalser. They always have really interesting suggestions.

I'd like to suggest two different groups of writers from my experience. The first being the Jewish American experience. I was raised by Russian Jewish immigrants (grandparents) and my worldview is colored by that.
The second group are writers I got to know by living in Puerto Rico for two years when my first husband taught at the University of Puerto Rico.
The Jewish American Group:
Awake and Sing by Clifford Odets
The Rise of David Lewinsky by Abraham Cahan
Jews without money by Michael Gold
The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick
Little Disturbances of Man by Grace Paley
The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman
Ravelstein by Saul Bellow
The Fixer by Bernard malamud
Giant by Edna Ferber
Operation Shylock by Philip Roth
Call it Sleep by Henry Roth
Shadows on the Hudson by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Poetry by Adrienne Rich

For Puerto Rico the writers I knew there were Francisco Ayala, Juan Ramon Jimenez and Ciro Alegria. Jimenez, a Nobelist, was living there, as was Alegria, a Peruvian, and Ayala, a Spaniard.

I just noticed that Faulkner, Hemingway, Henry James, Hawthorne
Poe and Emily Dickinson were missing from the suggestions above, and I think that they are our greatest writers.

Some choices:
The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying for faulkner
The Old Man and the Sea and the Short Stories by Hemingway
The Ambassadors, The Americans, The Golden Bowl, and Daisy miller for Henry James
The Tell-Tale Heart by Poe and
The Collected Poems by Emily Dickinson and her biography by Richard Sewall
P.S. Not my country but my neighbor:
For Canada: Josef Skvorecky was omitted by the Canadians, and although he is originally Czech, he has been in Canada a long time. One of his novels is The Bass Saxophone. Also unmentioned was Mordechai Richler for The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.

Previous country of residence being Greece:

Iconostasis of Anonymous Saints by Yannis Ritsos really moving and funny, autobiographical portrait of a poet and his friends

Previous country of residence and main literary enthusiasm being Poland:

House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk - really a masterpiece, just don't follow the recipes using poisonous mushrooms

Country of citizenship being Ireland:

Keith Ridgway's Standard Time or The Parts , none of that misty Irishness in sight

and for Belgium, as above, I can't disagree with Amelie Nothomb, as LT tells me I have seven, they're as more-ish as salted peanuts.

While I'm from America, I think that's got enough people to speak for it.

I lived in New Zealand for a while and my favorite book from there is Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera (someone already suggested him as an author). I also really love my copy of Land of the Long White Cloud by Kiri Te Kanawa, which is a collection of Maori myths and stories. Land of the Long White Cloud is the translation of Aotearoa, which is the Maori name for New Zealand.

I also spent large parts of my childhood in the Bahamas, in a small village called Treasure Cay in the Abacos. My favorite book from the Bahamas (also a collection of stories) is An Evening in Guanima: A Treasury of Folktales From the Bahamas by Patricia Glinton-Meicholas.

I'm from the United States, but I have relatives living in Sweden. I'd like to recommend Per Olov Enquist in particular The Book of Blanche and Marie, The Royal Physicians Visit, Lewi's Journey, and Captain Nemo's Library.

Can I also add these titles for Australia:

Poor Fellow My Country - Xavier Herbert;
Carpentaria - Alexis Wright;
City of Sea Lions - Eva Sallis;
The Marsh Birds - Eva Sallis;
White Earth - Andrew McGahan;
The Timeless Land Trilogy - Eleanor Dark;

Any work by Dymphna Cusack, Florence James, Miles Franklin, Marjorie Barnard Eldershaw.

What a great global thread!

For my country of residence, Italy, I'd recommend
Elena Ferrante's the days of abandonment (which has also been made into a film). The plot outline, of a woman abandoned by her husband who 'freefalls into the darkest places of the soul', did nothing for me, but Ferrante's writing was so spectacular that I was gripped from start to finish.

I'd also recommend Niccolo Ammaniti, and Leonardo Sciasia

For my native country, Ireland, CitizenKelly above has already given some great recommendations. How about adding to that, though, Flann O'Brien whose At-Swim-Two-Birds remains one of the most inventive and funny novels I've ever read. Also well worth reading is Ciaran Carson whose Shamrock Tea manages to link Belfast and Van Eyck in what the spectator magazine rightly called 'the literary equivalent of a rubik's cube'.

My suggestions for the US have already been said, so instead I'll recommend for my country of heritage (well, one of them). I am taking Chinese now and we're reading a lot of exciting literature, my favorites of which are by Ba Jin (Family; Spring; Fall; assorted short stories) and Wang Meng (short stories - that's all I've read by him unfortunately, but I like him a lot). Nothing incredibly obscure, I'll grant, but this being a Western-dominated world, I find that most people have never heard of them.

This is a wonderful thread. I would add one more for Canada (and I love the Canadian ones already mentioned) but I would add Lullabies for little criminals by Heather O'Neill.

What a great thread idea!!!! You've all loaded me up with a great tbr list. Thanks!

From Australia:
A Fortunate Life by A. B. Facey
Lantana Lane, Eleanor Dark
Bobbin Up, Dorothy Hewett
Three Dollars, Elliot Perlman

The Governor General's Literary Awards for Canada were announced today. I have blogged about it here:

http://freshinkbooks.blogspot.com/2008/10/governor-generals-award-finalists.html

Decades ago, just before I moved to Australia from the US, I read George Johnston's My Brother Jack - so very Melbourne! When I arrived in Australia, the first place I visited was Katoomba in the Blue Mountains just west of Sydney. Many years later Delia Falconer wrote The Service of Clouds which captured the magic of the place so beautifully.

I'm from Sweden and it's not that hard to find the "classics" (Astrid Lindgren, Selma Lagerlöf, Pär Lagerkvist, Vilhelm Moberg, etc.), but if you're looking for something more contemporary, I'd recommend Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (it's part one of a trilogy - part two is coming out in English at the beginning of next year), which is a hugely popular book in Sweden right now - albeit a little gruesome at times. Also, Popular Music from Vittula by Mikael Niemi and Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred by Carl-Johan Vallgren are worth a read in my opinion. A lot of people have asked me about Jan Guillou's Ondskan, which was made into the Oscar Nominated movie, Evil, but as far as I can tell, it's not (currently) being translated into English. For mysteries, books by Henning Mankell are easy to find in English.

Three great reads from South Africa:
Long Walk to Freedom: The inspiring autobiography of Nelson Mandela; My Traitor's Heart a brilliantly written memoir by Rian Malan, the grandson of DF Malan, one of the chief orchestrators of Apartheid; and the very moving classic, Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton.

Looks like I'm a little late to this thread - great idea, btw! I'm from Canada and several people have already listed a few of my favourite authors, including Michael Ondaatje and Jane Urquhart. I would add some lesser known gems: The Double Hook by Sheila Watson or Icefields by Thomas Wharton. For French Canada, consider Yesterday, at the Hotel Clarendon by Nicole Brossard or poetry by Nathalie Stephens.

Being from Western Australia, I have to recommend Tim Winton particularly the classic Cloudstreet, but also the children's series Lockie Leonard, and the Bugalugs Bum Thief, which can enchant adults too.
Then there's Robert Drewe's The Shark Net, a thriller about a serial killer, which depicts 1960s Perth in exquisite detail.

I am Danish and I can only agree with the books mentioned in tread 17.

I currently live in Greenland, but I can be very hard to find anything translated into English, but I know that some of Knud Rasmussen 's work has been translated. alot of it is about his expeditions, but he has also made some collections of old Greenlandic folk tales.
Kaassassuk is an old Greenlandic legend that has recently been made into a graphic novel by Christian Fleischer Rex. There is a English version of that book.
Kalak is a new book, but I don't know if it has been tranlated yet. It is a autobiography and alot of it takes place in Greenland.

That's what I have by now, but I am working on a list of books about Greenland that has been tranlated into English

From Scotland:
A Scots Quair by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. A classic. First published in 1932.

RUSSIA:
The country of my birth has changed a LOT throughout history, even the past 10 years, so I'm listing 3 books reflecting different eras.

Ironically, each deals at least in part with a "Messiah" theme (guess we Russians really are into mysticism :)

- The Sacred Book of the Werewolf: A Novel
Cutting-edge contemporary Moscow, though it contains many references to Russia's history & Communism.

- The Master and Margarita
A fairytale / love story set in communist Russia. Most of my Russian friends agree this is their favorite book ever, but make sure to get an annotated translation.

- The Idiot
One of the classical "Russian Greats." This is my favorite by Dostoevsky, and in my opinion it's his most accessible work. Depicts upper-crust Russian society before Communism.

Another recommendation from New Zealand
Try Dreamhunter and its sequel Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox.

I lived in Israel many years ago so would like to say Amos Oz's A tale of love and darkness is an exceptional memoir of childhood. I also loved David Grossman's The Zigzag Kid

Australia:
The Secret River by Kate Grenville
Breath by Tim Winton
Burning In by Madeleine Jucheau
The Ballad of Desmond Kale by Roger Macdonald
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
Prochownik's Dream by Alex Miller
The Lost Dog by Michelle de Krester
The Hamilton Case by Michelle de Krester
Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones
The Broken Shore by Peter Temple

Hey spinak - New Zealand writer Lloyd Jones wrote Mr Pip. A great Australian read is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I guess not that many people who live in South Korea know about this group..
Well..from my country..
Few that I can think of are:

A Step from Heaven by An Na
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
When My name was Keoko by Linda Sue Park

I think some of them are YAs..(I know Single Shard is for sure..but slightly hazy about other titles..)

From Kyrgyzstan anything by Chingis Aitmatov, especially Jamillia.

I am Ethiopian. A few books on Africa that I recommend:

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Ali is born in Somalia.
Women at Point Zero - Nawal El Saadawi - Egyptian.
Kaffir Boy - Mark Mathabane - South African.
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami - Morocco.

My husband is Belgian and from Belgium I really enjoyed Bruges La Morte by Rodenbach.

We now live in San Francisco. One of my favorite American Writers is Richard Russo. I like all of this books. Most recently I read Bridge of Sighs.

I haven't read so much from my country of origin. I guess I'd recommend Italo Calvino's Italian Folk Tales.

-- Gerry

Hello Gerry! What do you like about Italian Folk Tales? I've been slowly reading through them since last year, and whilst I've mostly enjoyed them it's not usually the first book I want to pick up. Can you enthuse me? Many thanks!

Re: 74

Chris says:

"...it's not usually the first book I want to pick up. Can you enthuse me?"

Likely not!

It's been many years since I went on my folk-tale crusade. Over less than six months I read about 8 big volumes of world folk tales. This, after reading about 8 books by Jorge Amado. I found it somehow useful "low level" information for a writer to have in his substrata.

I read Calvino's somewhere in the middle of the flood, and it had so much more humanity in it. People were human and fallible rather than being cardboard cut-outs which they can easily become in folk tales. They smelled bad, their ragged clothes were visible, or they had scars or secrets. I still remember one of the handful of tales involving Christ and his travels with the apostles through Italy (who knew).

I was initially introduced to the book by some excerpts that appeared in NPR (North American Poetry Review). At least I think that was the name of that rag. What a great newspaper that was! Now undoubtedly a generation gone or something.

After you've read a few hundred such tales they take on a certain sameness, and you either begin to appreciate or "get bored". I liked it in the same way I like Chicago blues: It's not like I'm going to encounter something I haven't heard before, but I get into the finesse of the thing. And frankly I get into the repetitive qualities for their own sake; the "groove" or "mantra", if you will. That's as close as I can come to explaining it.

Within that context, Calvino's simple tales have more color and orginality. It's easy to see why, since this is not an anthropologist hell-bent on retaining the "purity" of the tale--far from it. Calvino sliced and diced from among myriad versions of stories from many archives in small local libraries, and fashioned them into a clever "mosaics" of his very own modern choosing.

During this period of time I had two notable opportunities to leverage this stuff. One was a new girl friend that I got hooked up with. One night she had a stress headache from work. Knowing something about the utility of a light hypnotic state, I had her close her eyes and walked her through a continuously more relaxing environment. Along the way I had her open boxes and find archetypal elements to carry on her journey. Eventually I put her to sleep for a little while. When she awoke, her headache was gone ("a miracle!") and she was enthralled with the "journey". I was compelled to take her on another half-dozen over the few months of our relationship. It was fun and challenging.

Similarly I went to stay at a friend's house who was putting her kids to bed. Somehow I got the task (first time ever) of "reading a bedtime story". Instead I invented one, cobbled together from various elements in the tales I was reading. It was really quite easy to configure both the boy and the girl, as well as their town and house, as constructs in the "journey", in this case to find their fortune. After a while I started to conclude, but they were adamant I continue. This time I set an accepted conclusion point, "When we find the river we'll turn the light out", they accepted. Once there they offered no argument and the lights went out.

The following day, and the next, they were after me from morning till night to provide more of "their" journey. I concluded it (and well, I recall) on my last day with them. Fifteen years later, I bumped into the daughter for the first time since she was 8 or 9. She recited 90% of that story back to me. It blew my mind! Folk tales are incredibly powerful stuff.

No, I have no short answers to any question.

-- Gerry

I think this is not totally an aside here since I will begin by recommending a collection of Folk Tales from my country of origin, Slovakia. Slovak Folktales. This was occasioned by the wonderful comments above by Gerry. Dobsinsky's folktales stand out for exactly the reasons Gerry ascribes to Calvino: the characters are identifiably human rather than standard cutouts.

Vladimir Minac, an important Slovak writer says, "Dobšinský told the inner tales of his people. Many generations of Slovak children have been brought up with Dobšinský's tales that have improved their sense of the beauty of the Slovak language, their power of fantasy, and their sense of the story from which it is not possible to be separated. And still many and many generations will come and discover Dobšinský because many things that are known now and are brought from the world will gradually get pale like an old linen, but Dobšinský's tales will exist as long as the Slovak language exists." There are similarities of course to the Grimms and to Andersen. But they remain uniquely Slovak.

The tales I grew up on as a child in Slovakia remain with me. I, too, could recite 90% of the verbatim text of many of them. I have the original in Slovak in three volumes hiding in a box and I must scurry, find them, and spend some time with old friends.

Re: 76

So hearty an endorsement as that, Polutropos, makes me eager to get Slovak Folktales immediately. And it's been a while since I lived inside folk tales (1001 Arabian nights--unedited, is the only exception.) Sadly, Amazon has it used for $56. Yikes!

Well I'll keep my eye out for it, anyway!

-- Gerry

I am new to this group, but just had to recommend The Birth House by Ami McKay - and I promise that it is good for more than just the similarities in our names ;) It is based on the east coast, and is historical fiction, and oh so good!

> 77

There is a paperback available for $23, I think. I, also, was intrigued enough to look for it. :)

Gerry, thanks so much for your detailed thoughts! Yes, I think by now I've fully experienced the "sameness" you mention. After a few dozen Italian Folktales I am wondering whether there is anything new for me in the last several hundred pages! I admit though that Calvino has written these up with a great deal of care and panache, and his writerly skill takes some of the woodeness out. Perhaps I'll jst leave them where they are and continue to dip into them now and again.

Re: 80

Perhaps I'll just leave them where they are and continue to dip into them now and again.

Probably the best approach. I have a lot of books of poetry, but for me they are difficult to read for an afternoon, say 30 or 40 poems. It's not that I can't do it, it's that I diminish their effect.

I compare it to the joy I get at reading a full book of Gary Larsen cartoons: The first three or four are hilarious, but then become more anemic as I acclimate to them.

I can see how folk tales would work the same way.

-- Gerry

Well, I've lived most of my life in the US, but I was born in Buenos Aires and there's some Argentine literature worth mentioning.

There's J.L. Borges, of course, with a lot of works worth mentioning, but in particular The Aleph, Ficciones, and Brodie's Report.
Adolfo Bioy Casares' The Invention of Morel
Roberto Arlt's The Seven Madmen and Los Lanzallamas (not in translation)
Julio Cortazar's short story collections, especially the early stuff. (I know them as Bestiario, Final del Juego, and Las armas secretas but I don't know how that corresponds with the English titles.)
Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman
Ricardo Piglia's Assumed Name

Bumping this...

Only just seen this thread, and wanted to echo others in saying how good it is. Thank you to all those who contributed to it. I've found some great new additions to the want list/mountain.

Seeing as I'm here, and lived for a fair old time in Israel I'd like to suggest The Lover by A. B. Yehoshua, the excellent early short stories by Amos Oz - Where The Jackals Howl, and the more contemporary Rhyming Life And Death by the same author. Etgar Keret's The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God & Other Stories is a very satisfying modern collection, as are Israeli Lives by Igal Sarna and Ashes: and other stories by Naomi Shepherd.

Maybe I'll come back another time with my Londoner hat on.

The Philippines:

Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo by Jose Rizal
Cave and Shadows and The Woman Who Had Two Navels by Nick Joaquin
A Season of Grace by N.V.M. Gonzalez
America Is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan
You Lovely People by Bienvenido Santos