Happy April Fool’s Day!  I considered doing some kind of spoof, but I’m so behind on reviews from March that I’m going to need every day in April just to catch up.  Still, this is my very favourite month, because my birthday is ten days away.   Anyway, along with the snowfall outside the window today, April brings two new challenges!  Although I posted about the Novella Challenge back in March, it finally begins this month. I’m very excited, since I have an awesome line-up (if I do say so myself). And I’ve decided to take on one more challenge, because there’s no way I could resist the idea of a world tour through books. The Orbis Terrarum Challenge involves choosing nine books by nine different authors from nine different countries and reading them in nine months. Here’s my itinerary:
I’ll start with a short hop across the Atlantic, over to France and Sebastien Japrisot’s A Very Long Engagement. I loved the movie, so I’m really looking forward to the book. It’s set around WWI, and I’m guessing it has a touch of magical realism about it, since the movie certainly did. I’ve never read any contemporary French lit, so this will be a great way to start.
Then, it’s down to Egypt, one of my favourite countries ever (yes, I’ve been there) thanks to In the Eye of the Sun by Ahdaf Soueif. This was originally my weather choice for Annie’s What’s in a Name Challenge, but I’ve decided to read Sunlight at Midnight for that one, and bring Soueif over here (for technical reasons). This is a nice big book that focuses on a young Egyptian woman’s coming of age.
I’ll go even further south in the company of July’s People, set in Nadine Gordimer’s native South Africa. This is an experimental novel written in the early 80s, when apartheid was still in place but protests were beginning. The book imagines what would happen if black South Africans violently revolted, and white South Africans had to flee and hide in the bush.
Then, I’ll take a trip northeast to Kenya, and memoirs of two incredibly accomplished women: the British-born, Kenyan-raised Beryl Markham in West With the Night and Wangari Maathai’s Unbowed, the account of her political and ecological activism. These two count as one choice, since they’re the same country: I just can’t decide which one I’ll end up reading.
After that, I’ll go further east to Lahore, Pakistan for a conversation with The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Written by X, it’s small book written in second-person detailing how a moderate Pakistani who studied at Princeton ends up as a fundamentalist.
A quick trip will bring me to Salman Rushdie’s India and The Moor’s Last Sigh. I love Rushdie, and this isn’t one of his I’ve read before, but reviews compare it Midnight’s Children, since it’s another family saga that also looks at Indian history.
Next up will be a looong journey southeast to Australia, in order to meet up with Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career, a turn of the century novel described as the Australian Little House on the Prairie. Apparently, it scandalised people of its time, so I can’t wait to find out why.  For some reason, I never go to Australia, so I might throw in The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough while I’m there.
One last stop before I cross the international dateline: I’ll be staying in Japan for awhile with The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima. I mooched this after reading Chris’ review, this story of first love in a small fishing village sounds wonderful.
Then it’s another long haul to a Latin American country with a definite connection to Japan: Peru! There, I’ll be reading Marie Arana’s experiences growing up half-Peruvian, half-American in American Chica. Since she spent her childhood in both countries, it’ll be the perfect way to prepare myself to come back home.