I'm Reading A Book From EVERY Country - Here's My INSANE Spreadsheet

LINKS: (no rhetts, sorry rhett)

[milenak]

A Macedonian here, or as it's in your spreadsheet North Macedonian (although for Macedonians this is not the preferred name we like being used because we were made to change it for historical-political reasons from Bulgarians and Greeks), the book you've selected for my country is not actually from my country as far as i know. I've never even heard of that book and that author and according to wikipedia that author is Bulgarian which as I mentioned earlier it's controversial. A book I would recommend from my country is anything from Goran Stefanovski (I recommend Wild flesh) or Petre M Andreevski (I recommend Pirej), they touch on the suffering of the people in my country.

[remy]

I'm not Austrian myself, but having read Chess recently for my studies, I'd say it's an excellent choice.
Zweig was a Jewish author born in the 1880s and, inevitably, all of his work was burned by the Nazis. Chess in particular falls under "exile literature" (a german "genre" of literature written while in exile, during the Nazi regime) and was Zweig's very last work. Shortly after, in 1942, Zweig, along with his wife, committed suicide by poison.

[joaolucaslima]

Oh my god, brazilian here. You will love Dom Casmurro, and if it’s possible, try reading other Machado de Assis books, he is phenomenal. Specially “Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas”, this is my favorite of him.

[jstyler]

I'm surprised by how many of the same books we've chosen, like American Visa for Bolivia, and The Rainbow Troops for Indonesia (both are quite good!) I especially enjoyed and recommend (although they are not on your list) Captains of the Sands from Brazil, The Invention of Morel from Argentina, and The Good Soldier Svejk from Czechia.

[VictorGarcia-mnpx]

This is incredible omg, I'm gonna use your spreadsheet to make my own, thank you so much for it!!! Also, I looked it up, and the Andorra book is originally in Spanish!

[theotherbrief]

Oh my god Rose, this is the coolest nerdiest thing I have seen

[remy]

Also, one way to figure out the original language of a book is to check English Wikipedia (either the book's page or the author's page), because they include the original title. Salvadó's page lists "The teacher of Cheops" as "El mestre de Kheops". Because the title uses "mestre", rather than "maestro", I can safely assume it was originally written in Catalán (and for languages I'm not familiar with, I'd check Google Translate, DeepL, or similar sites capable of language detection)

[jamieson]

For Venezuela I read it would be night in caracas. I was able to get it from the library so it might be more accessible for you too!

[Elise_Sca]

Hi, I might be late on this topic & I'm not Guatemalan myself but I know that they have two important authors there who won a Nobel Prize, so it might be easier for you to find their books in your library:
1- Miguel Ángel Asturias, Nobel Prize for Literature 1967
2- Rigoberta Menchú - Nobel Peace Prize 1992.
I'm actually Italian, so I'd recomment some personal favorites:
- Primo Levi: If this is a Man (memoir about his experience in a Nazi concentration camp)
- Michela Murgia: Accabadora (Fiction based on an old tradition unique to the island of Sardinia) -
- Zerocalcare: any of his graphic novels, maybe start with Kobane Calling.

[annaf]

This is such a good template and v inspiring!

For the Marshall Islands I think you’ve got a ~travel book so I’d highly rec IEP Jaltok by Marshallese poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner :))

Also, I’ve suggested this to a few ppl who are reading from every country, to include West Papua - they’ve been under occupation by Indonesia since the 60s w a sham referendum. I haven’t found a book entirely by a West Papuan writer so far (censorship is bad and I’ve only seen diaspora voices in articles/chapters) so The Road by John Martinkus is on my list for now

[aronantalics]

Hi there!
For Hungary I would like to recommend "The Paul Street boys" by Ferenc Molnár. It is one of the most beloved and widely known classics of Hungarian literature in comparison to "Darkness at noon" (which, I'll admit, most of us have never heard of). The Paul Street boys is a must read for pupils not only in Hungary, but even in some of its neighbouring countries.

[seoul]

Although I'm South Korean but for North Korea, "Friend" by Paek nam nyong

[fenixdaigua]

Catalan is the only official language in Andorra. The author apparently writes in both Catalan and Spanish, but that novel won the 1998 Nestor Lujan Award for historical fiction in Catalan, so the original is in Catalan. The translator seems to know Catalan, Portuguese and Spanish and is based on Barcelona, so the translation must also be straight from Catalan into English. Most of the books translated from Catalan into English are by Catalonian authors, so finding one from an Andorran must have been certainly challenging.

[facu_avm]

I see that for Uruguay you choosed Eduardo Galeano’s “Open Veins of Latin America”. Good book :) a really heavy read though.
I recommend you to read “The Truce” by Mario Benedetti ❤🇺🇾

[hdcbpxsytahdcbpx]

this is such an incredible idea, got a lot of recommendations from the spreadsheet, thanks!

[selina]

Also, for a lot of the countries listed you have books originally in English and about the country's history, rather than by an author from that country (I see that this is the case for Uzbekistan & Turkmenistan, for example) - I think it might be more helpful to look for translated literature from those & other such countries? After a few minutes on Google I found The Devils' Dance by Hamid Ismailov from Uzbekistan & The Tale of Aypi by Ak Weksapar for Turkmenistan. I know availability might be more limited for such books, but I personally think they seem more fitting to the spirit of the challenge. Good luck!

[pilardelfinamorel]

from argentina i would also recommend Mariana Enriquez and Julio Cortázar ❤

[lavendela]

This is so cool. I would love to use it as starting point

[evadierickx]

I highly recommend Cantoras by Caro de Robertis for Uruguay!

[HeII-_-wrlld]

Hello for Kuwait, I think you would be able to source Saud Alsanousi books. Two that I'm sure are translated from Arabic to English are Mama Hissa's Mice
and The Bamboo Stalk. Alsanousi is a very prominent author amongst Kuwaitis and other Arabs, and his novels often reflect parts of Kuwaiti society that some refuse to see or acknowledge. I would prefer Mama Hissa's Mice but it might be a personal taste.