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December 2005
Compiled by Lisa Colcord, of Glendale Public library,AZ,from contributions by the members of Fiction_L.

(To use this list in your library, book club, etc., please include the following credit line: "Compiled by the subscribers of the Fiction_L mailing list." This list may not be used for commercial purposes.)

AFGHANISTAN

Kite Runner by Hosseini
Bookseller of Kabul by Seierstad
Flashman by Frazer
Horsemen by Kessel

CHINA

Bonesetter's Daughter by Tan
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by See
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai

INDIA

God of Small Things by Roy
Fine Balance by Mistry
Song of Kali by Simmons

AUSTRALIA

Pobby and Dingon by Rice
True History of the Kelly Gang by Gory

JAPAN

Audrey Hepburn's Neck by Brown
Samarai's Garden by Tsukiyama
Strangeness of Beauty by Minatoya
Ash by Thompson

SPAIN and MOROCCO

Shadow of the Wind by Ruiz Zafron (Spain)
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Lalami (mostly Morocco)

FRANCE

Very Long Engagement by Japrisot
In the Company of Angels by Kelby
Magician's Wife by Moore (also Algeria)

ENGLAND

Atonement by McEwan
Saturday by McEwan
Brick Lane by Ali (London and Bangladesh)
Long Way Home by Hornby
Bridget Jones' Diary by Fielding
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Haddon
Year of Wonders by Brooks
Undomestic Goddess by Kinsella
Slammerkin by Donoghue

SOUTH and CENTRAL AMERICA

Daughter of Fortune by Allende (Chile, also China and US)
Bel Canto by Patchett (unnamed South American country)
In the Time of the Butterflies by Alvarez (Dominican Republic)
Love in the Time of Cholera by Garcia Marquez
House for Mr. Biswas by Naipaul (Trinidad)
Mosquito Coast by Theroux (Honduras)

ITALY

Christ Stopped at Eboli, by Levi
Jack Frusciante Has Left the Band, by Brizzi
If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, by Calvino
The Broker by Grisham
The English Patient by Ontaadje
A Thread of Grace by Russell
The Birth of Venus by Dunant
Room with a View by Forster (also England)
Soldier of the Great War by Helprin (also Austria)

TURKEY

Birds without Wings by de Bernieres
Snow by Pamuk
My Name is Red by Pamuk

AFRICAN COUNTRIES

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Fuller
Scribbling the Cat by Fuller
Zanzibar Chest by Hartley
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (and sequels) by McCall Smith (Botswana)
Joshua's Bible by Leanne
Elephant Song by Smith
Birds of Prey by Smith
Blue Horizon by Smith
Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver
Skinner's Drift by Fugard
Madonna of Excelsior by Mda
Triomf by Van Niekerk
Prester John by Buchan
Last King of Scotland by Foden (Uganda)
Magician's Wife by Moore (Algeria and France)
Darling by Banks (West Africa)
Almost anything by Damon Galgot, Nadine Gordimer, JM Coetzee

HUNGARY

To Err is Divine by Bozai
Prague by Phillips
Budapest by Buarque (also in Brazil)
Celestial Harmonies by Esterhazy

CZECH REPUBLIC

Russian Debutante's Handbook by Shteyngart
Ultimate Intimacy by Klima
Miracle Game by Skvorecky

RUSSIA

Rasputin's Daughter by Alexander
Kitchen Boy by Alexander
People's Act of Love by Meek
Catherine: The Great Journey by Gregory
Almost anything by Cruz or Solzhenitsin

PORTUGAL

All the Names by Saramago
Hunting Midnight by Zimler
Company of Strangers by Wilson

POLAND

River Midnight by Nattel

PHILIPPINES

When the Elephants Dance by Holthe

BURMA (MYANMAR)

Saving Fish from Drowning by Tan
Piano Tuner by Mason

CANADA

Deafening by Itani
Crow Lake by Lawson
Alias Grace by Atwood
Forest Lover by Vreeland

IRELAND

Haunted Ground by Hart
Lake of Sorrows by Hart
Pearl by Gordon

MEXICO

Place Where the Sea Remembers by Benitez
Night of the Radishes by Benitez

ISRAEL

Martyr's Crossing by Wilentz
Also many historical novels based on biblical stories

NORWAY

Don't Look Back by Fossum

AZERBAIJAN

Ali and Nino by Said

CUBA

Simple Habana Melody by Hijuelos

JAPAN

Memoirs of a Geisha by Golden

GREECE

Corelli's Mandolin by de Bernieres

GERMANY

Reader by Schlink
Tin Drum by Grass

AUSTRIA

Canone Inverso by Maurensig
Homestead by Lippi
Soldier of the Great War by Helprin (also Italy)

OTHER

Painted Bird by Kozinski (Eastern Europe)
Sex Lives of Cannibals by Troost (Equatorial Pacific)

Here's Maureen's post:

At the Waterboro site (http://www.waterborolibrary.org/bklistt.htm) you will find the following collection of booklists:

"The page offers booklists for fiction whose geographical setting is important to the story. Our Travel and Place in Mystery page offers many more titles with a sense of place.

General Travel Fiction / Fiction of Place
Set in Africa and The Middle East
Set in the Americas (including the U.S.)
Set in Asia
Set in Australia and The Pacific
Set in Europe/Britain/Ireland

In addition, Gale has a two-volume set, if you can find it anywhere near to you, entitled "Literature of Developing Nations for Students," and it's full of titles of accessible books from around the world.

And of course there's good old "Novelist," which allows you to search by the country that interests you, and will pull up some good choices.

"What do I read next?" also allows searches of its database by "where."

And I probably don't need to remind you of the Fiction_L section entitled "Books set in a particular time or place." (http://www.webrary.org/rs/flbklistsetting.html)

www.webrary.org/rs:flbklists/countries.html
First published on the Web: 1/13/2006
Last updated: 1/13/2006