Reviews by Author Nationality

Here are all my reviews of books written by authors from countries besides the US and UK, sorted by nation of origin. Note that international books I’ve read but not blogged aren’t on this list.

To jump to a particular geographic region, use these internal links:
Asia | Europe | Middle East & Maghreb | North America & Caribbean | Oceania | South America | Sub-Saharan Africa

Asia

Afghanistan

• Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary
• In Search of King Solomon’s Mines by Tahir Shah

Bangladesh

• A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
• Creating a World Without Poverty by Muhammad Yunus

Burma

• The River of Lost Footsteps by Thant Myint-U
• Letters From Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi
• Freedom from Fear by Aung San Suu Kyi
• From the Land of Green Ghosts by Pascal Khoo Thwe

China

• Gold Boy, Emerald Girl by Yiyun Li
• Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang
• The Vagrants by Yiyun Li
• The Good Women of China by Xinran
• Empress by Shan Sa
• The Eye of Jade by Diane Wei Liang
• Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang
• The Long March by Shuyun Sun
• The Girl Who Played Go by Shan Sa
• Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
• The Noodle Maker by Ma Jian
• Raise the Red Lantern by Su Tong

India

• Beautiful Thing by Sonia Faleiro
• Fury by Salman Rushdie
• Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai
• Walking with the Comrades by Arundhati Roy
• The Zigzag Way by Anita Desai
• Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie
• Swami and Friends by R. K. Narayan
• Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai
• Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer
• Eating India by Chitrita Banerji
• The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie
• The Open Road by Pico Iyer
• The Jaguar Smile by Salman Rushdie
• Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
• Journey Into Islam by Akbar Ahmed
• Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
• The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
• Train to Pakistan by Khushant Singh
• Mistress of Spices by Chitra Divakaruni
• The Tiger Ladies of Kashmir by Sudha Koul
• Haunting Bombay by Shilpa Agarwal
• A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

Indonesia

• This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Japan

• Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
• The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura
• An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto
• Kokoro by Natsume Soseki
• Beyond the Blossoming Fields by Jun’ichi Watanbe
• All She Was Worth by Mikyuki Miyabe
• Goodbye, Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto
• Twinkle Twinkle by Kaori Ekuni
• The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon
• A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
• Translucent Tree by Nobuko Takagi
• The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima
• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
• Naomi by Junichiro Tanizaki
• Goodbye by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
• The Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano
• Emma Vol. One by Kaoru Mori
• Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
• Hardboiled and Hard Luck by Banana Yoshimoto
• A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata

Korea (South)

• Please Look After Mom by Kyung-sook Shin
• Bad Samaritans by Ha-Joon Chang

Kyrgyz Republic

• The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov
• The Ascent of Mount Fuji by Chingiz Aitmatov

Malaysia

• The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
• Kampung Boy by Lat

Mongolia

• The Blue Sky by Galsan Tschinag

Nepal

• Buddha’s Orphans by Samrat Upadhyay

Pakistan

• Fireflies in the Mist by Qurratulain Hyder
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Singapore

• The Body at the Tower by Y.S. Lee
• A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee

Sri Lanka

• Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai
• Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje
• The Hamilton Case by Michelle de Kretser

Vietnam

• Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong

Europe

Azerbaijan

• Ali and Nino by Kurban Said

Austria

• The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich

Croatia

• Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugrešić

Denmark

• Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
• Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen

Finland

• The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
• Purge by Sofi Oksanen
• Troll: a Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo

France

• The Princess of Cleves by Madame de La Fayette
• The Letters of Abelard and Heloise by
• The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan
• The Black Sheep by Honoré de Balzac
• The Sleeping Car Murders by Sebastien Japrisot
• Claudine Married by Colette
• The Complete Romances of Chretien de Troyes by
• Cheri by Colette
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
• A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues by Andre Compte-Sponville
• Africa’s World War by Gerard Prunier
• My Mother’s House and Sido by Colette
• Claudine in Paris by Colette
• Green Mountain, White Cloud by Francois Cheng
• The Ladies’ Paradise by Emile Zola
• Castle Eppstein by Alexandre Dumas
• The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
• Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors
• A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot
• Gigi by Colette
• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
• Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
• Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos
• Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac
• Candide by Voltaire
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
• Trap for Cinderella by Sebastien Japrisot
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• A Guide to Elegance by Genevieve A Dariaux
• Claudine at School by Colette

Germany

• Elective Affinities by Johanne Wolfgang von Goethe
• Damascus Nights by Rafik Schami
• The King’s Bride by E.T.A. Hoffmann
• The Sorrows of Young Werther and Novella by Johanne Wolfgang von Goethe

Greece

• The Theban Plays by Sophocles
• The Oresteia by Aeschylus
• Grief Lessons by Euripides
• An Oresteia by Aeschylus, Sophocles,& Euripedes

Hungary

• Embers by Sandor Marai

Iceland

• Sagas of the Icelanders by

Ireland

• In the Woods by Tana French
• Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd
• Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show by Frank Delaney
• The Bell by Iris Murdoch

Italy

• The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
• Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous
• The Aeneid by Virgil
• If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino
• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
• Silk by Alessandro Baricco
• A Venetian Affair by Andrea Di Robilant
• I’m Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti

Netherlands

• A Bed in Heaven by Tessa de Loo

Norway

• Jenny by Sigrid Undset
• The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder
• Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
• Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen

Poland

• The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Portugal

• The Maias by Eca de Queiros

Russia

• The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia
• Cape of Storms by Nina Berberova
• Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk by Boris Akunin
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Medea and Her Children by Ludmila Ulitskaya
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
• Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
• Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog by Boris Akunin
• The Ladies from St. Petersburg by Nina Nikolaevna Berberova
• The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin
• Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

Sweden

• The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson

Switzerland

• The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton
• Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton

Middle East & Maghreb

Egypt

• Women and Gender in Islam by Leila Ahmed
• The Golden Scales by Parker Bilal
• The Innocence of the Devil by Nawal El Saadawi
• Distant View of a Minaret by Alifa Rifaat
• A Border Passage by Leila Ahmed
• Dream Homes by Joyce Zonana
• Khufu’s Wisdom by Naguib Mahfouz
• In the Eye of the Sun by Ahdaf Soueif
• Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz
• The Arabian Nights trans. by Husain Haddawy

Iran

• Words, Not Swords by Farzaneh Milani
• A Persian Requiem by Simin Daneshvar
• Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi
• Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi

Iraq (aka Sumer)

• Gilgamesh trans. by Stephen Mitchell

Israel

• From Empire to Empire by Abigail Jacobson
• Suddenly in the Depths of the Forest by Amos Oz
• Dearest Anne by Judith Katzir
• Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan

Lebanon

• I the Divine by Rabih Alameddine
• The Crusades Through Muslim Eyes by Amin Maalouf
• The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine

Libya

• Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar

Morocco

• A Season in Mecca by Abdellah Hammoudi
• The Travels of Ibn Battutah by

Palestine

• The Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury

Turkey

• Portrait of a Turkish Family by Irfan Orga
• The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk
• My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

North America & Caribbean

Antigua

• Unburnable by Marie-Elena John
• A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
• Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid

Canada

• Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson
• Emily Climbs by L.M. Montgomery
• Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
• The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley
• The Second Life of Samuel Tyne by Esi Edugyan
• Touch by Alexi Zentner
• The Golden Road by L.M. Montgomery
• The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
• The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley
• Among Others by Jo Walton
• The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
• The Story Girl by L.M. Montgomery
• Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
• Days of Death, Days of Life by Kristin Norget
• DreadfulWater Shows Up by Hartley Goodweather
• Fall on Your Knees by Ann Marie Macdonald
• Medicine River by Thomas King
• A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
• The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
• The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley
• Emiko Superstar by Mariko Tamaki
• Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
• Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint
• The Little Country by Charles de Lint
• Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King
• Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
• Still Life by Louise Penny
• Obasan by Joy Kogawa
• Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
• The Day the World Came to Town by Jim Defede
• “The Rez Sisters” by Tomson Highway

Cuba

• The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier
• Ruins by Achy Obejas

Dominican Republic

• Once Upon a Quinceanera by Julia Alvarez

Haiti

• After the Dance by Edwidge Danticat
• The Farming of the Bones by Edwidge Danticat

Jamaica

• The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
• Small Island by Andrea Levy
• The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
• The Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
• The New Moons Arms by Nalo Hopkinson
• The Girl with the Golden Shoes by Colin Channer

Mexico

• No One Will See Me Cry by Cristina Rivera-Garza
• Tear This Heart Out by Angeles Mastretta
• Life and Death in the Templo Mayor by Eduardo Matos Moctezuma
• A New Time for Mexico by Carlos Fuentes
• The Magic Lantern by Jose Tomas de Cuellar
• Looking for History by Alma Guillermoprieto
• Lovesick by Angeles Mastretta
• Samba by Alma Guillermoprieto
• Women With Big Eyes by Angeles Mastretta
• The Heart that Bleeds by Alma Guillermoprieto
• Here’s to You, Jesusa! by Elena Poniatowska

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Trinidad

• Prospero’s Daughter by Elizabeth Nunez
• White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey
• A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipul
• Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo

Oceania

Australia

• Eucalyptus by Murray Bail
• The Secret River by Kate Grenville
• Gilgamesh by Joan London
• Flying Too High by Kerry Greenwood
• Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan
• Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
• The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
• Almost French by Sarah Turnbull
• Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
• The Arrival by Shaun Tan
• My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
• Disquiet by Julia Leigh
• The Dreaming, Vol. One by Queenie Chan
• Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
• Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan

New Zealand

• Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey
• Photo Finish by Ngaio Marsh
• The Vintner’s Luck by Elizabeth Knox
• Ruined by Paula Morris
• Here At the End of the World We Learn to Dance by Lloyd Jones
• Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
• Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

Tahiti

• Frangipani by Celestine Hitiura Vaite

Western Samoa

• Where We Once Belonged by Sia Figiel (author & setting)

South & Central America

Argentina

• The Secret in Their Eyes by Eduardo Sacheri
• A Reader on Reading by Alberto Manguel
• A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel
• A Secret for Julia by Patricia Sagastizabal
• A Reading Diary by Alberto Manguel
• The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel

Brazil

• The Seamstress by Frances de Pontes Peebles
• The Silence of the Rain by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza
• Little Star of Bela Lua by Luana Monteiro
• Gabriela, Clove, and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado

Chile

• My Invented Country by Isabel Allende
• Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende

Colombia

• The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Guyana

• The Ventriloquist’s Tale by Pauline Melville

Nicaragua

• Bernardo and the Virgin by Silvio Sirias
• Meet Me Under the Ceiba by Silvio Sirias

Peru

• The Temptation of the Impossible by Mario Vargas Llosa
• American Chica by Marie Arana
• The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa

Venezuela

• The Lady, the Chef, and the Courtesan by Marisol

Sub Saharan Africa

Angola

• The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa

Cote d’Ivoire

• Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote by Ahmadou Kourouma
• Aya by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie

Eritrea

• The Consequences of Love by Sulaiman Addonia

Ethiopia

• The God who Begat a Jackal by Nega Mezlekia
• Notes From the Hyena’s Belly by Nega Mezlekia

Ghana

• The Honor Code by Kwame Anthony Appiah
• Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo
• Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
• Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey

Kenya

• Nairobi Heat by Mukoma Wa Ngugi
• The Book of Secrets by M G Vassanji

Liberia

• Murder in the Cassava Patch by Bai T Moore

Mozambique

• Sleepwalking Land by Mia Couto

Nigeria

• The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin
• Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngoza Adichie
• The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Song for Night by Chris Abani

Senegal

• Ambiguous Adventure by Cheikh Hamidou
• So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba

Sierra Leone

• A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

Somalia

• Born in the Big Rains by Fadumo Korn

South Africa

• Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night by Sindiwe Magona
• The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner
• A Human Being Died That Night by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
• Let the Dead Lie by Malla Nunn
• The Road to Home by Vanessa del Fabbro
• Country of My Skull by Antjie Krog
• A Time of Angels by Patricia Schonstein
• A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

Sudan

• Minaret by Leila Aboulela
• The Translator by Leila Aboulela
• Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
• The Translator by Daoud Hari

Tanzania

• By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Togo

• An African in Greenland by Tete-Michel Kpomassie

Uganda

• Tropical Fish by Doreen Baingana

Zimbabwe

• Without a Name and Under the Tongue by Yvonne Vera
• Zenzele by J. Nozipo Maraire