Name a book (or books) from a country other than your own that you love. Or aren’t there any?
Fantastic question! I think most of the books I read are foreign because I don’t read that much Canadian fiction (I know, it’s bad, I’m working on it *blushes*). Here are some of my favourites (the ones I’ve rated five stars that I can think of, lol):
England
– J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
– Jane Austen’s Persuasion
– Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South
– Ian McEwan’s Atonement
– Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend
– Louis de Bernieres’s Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (he’s based in England, I believe)
Spain
– Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind
– Ildefonso Falcones’s Cathedral of the Sea
– Andromeda Romano-Lax’s The Spanish Bow
– Federico Garcia Lorca’s collection of poetry
France
– Anna Gavalda’s Ensemble C’est Tout
Russia
– Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons
Australia
– Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds
United States
– Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon series
– David Bernioff’s City of Thieves
My, you have a long list of books, mine is much shorter.
Great list! I’m starting a new meme today called What Were They Thinking? over at The Crowded Leaf.. Stop by if you want to participate!
Ah you reminded me of two Spanish books I read not long ago but did not have in mind when I came up with my list (The Shadow of the Wind and Cathedral of the Sea).
Since my first language is Swedish but I’ve been reading in English for forty years, I had to make this question more challenging for myself by excluding English/American writers as well as Swedish. If you like, read my answer here
It is always great to discover great reads regardless of the country or nationality of the author. Nice list you’ve got here. Here’s my BTT for this week.
Clandestine Sanctuary
Wonderful list! North and South has been on my to-read pile for a while now…I need to bump that to the top 🙂