Around the world in eighty novels

Have been browsing through my bookshelves trying to find books which tell you about a country, not a hundred or so years ago, but more recently. Most of them are not, however, novels, but more accounts of trips and experiences in a particular country which I think might also be of interest to you.

Let's start with Africa:
-The Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley, about his experiences in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi as a foreign correspondent.
-The Caliph's House- a year in Casablanca by Thahir Shah, a lighter book about his experiences of renovating a house in Casablance, full of humour and compassion.

South East Asia:
-Tiger Balm by Lucretia Stewart about her travels in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia
- River of Time by John Swain, a deeply engrossing account of his time in Indochina during the times of conflict in the 1970's.
-Omnibus by Norman Lewis about Indochina in 1950's, he writes beautifully (anything of his is worth reading)

China:
-River Town by peter Hessler about the experiences of an America Peace Corps worker in the mid 1990's.

Eat, Pray and Love by Elizabeth Gilbert about, well, what the titile suggests, in Italy, India and Bali. Entertaining.

Spain:
- Shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon about Spain (the next book of his was not so good "The Angel's Game"

Mongolia:
-Hearing Birds Fly by Louisa Waugh

and so many more .....

Now that I think about it, any book by Ryszard Kapuscinski , the legendary reporter, who it now appears made up much of what he wrote, so perhaps we could qualify that as fiction. Whatever the truth about him, he was able to write with great empathy about the countries he related from. Among his books:
-Iran: Shah of Shah's, about the overthrow of the last shah.
-Ethiopia: The Emperor, an account of the crumbling of Haile Selassie's empire.
-Africa: The shadow of the sun, about post colonial Africa
and many others

Popular Music - Mikael Niemi - Sweden

After I read The Bone People, I was not anxious to go to New Zealand!

I don't see Haruki Murakami anywhere here, and those are certainly travel novels, of a sort. The Wind Up Bird Chronicles is my favorite.

Another nod for Shantaram, and whoever recommended it here on the TT. I stayed up nights for a week reading it.

Sea Wolf by Jack London is a must, as is McTeague (later made into Erich von Stroheim's epic film Greed).

If you're open to non-fiction, Robyn Davidson's books Tracks (about riding camels across Australia, accompanied only by a National Geographic photographer) and Wild Places (about riding camels across India with nomads) are fine reads. She was the inspiration for the mountain climber in Satanic Verses. Which reminds me, Rushdie's Shame is a good read nominally about Pakistan and Benazir Bhutto.

For an American's imagined perspective on Africa, I very much enjoyed The Poisonwood Bible. No idea how accurate its politics are. Ditto on her latest, the Lacuna, about Mexico in the 30s. Although you might ultimately do better reading African and Mexican writers.

For an American's imagined perspective on Africa, I very much enjoyed The Poisonwood Bible. No idea how accurate its politics are.

Kingsolver spent several years of her childhood in the then-Belgian Congo. So I think it's safe to assume the politics (and numerous other details) are accurate, at least from one possibly limited perspective.

--M.

Yes, just a routine anti-colonial disclaimer. And it's primarily a character-based story, even if the location and era pervade the novel.

As an aside, I read it while traveling in China, where people assumed it was The Bible, and that I was a religious. I kept trying to explain it was a novel, and they would laugh.

What a great travel idea! A few more suggestions for you:

EGYPT
Death On The Nile - Agatha Christie
(she was inspired to write this while travelling through Egypt in the 1930's)

NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA
The Shipping News - Annie Proux

PARIS, FRANCE
The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown

indonesia:

the weaver birds - magun wijaya

singapore:

following the wrong god home - catherine lim

i see haruki murakami was mentioned; kafka by the shore is also not bad by this great japanese writer.

Have finally set off on my travels and the route I have taken/planned so far is:

Norway - Out Stealing Horses (conclusion: Norway is beautiful, atmospheric, and poignant; it's people, reflective, somewhat aloof, and seemingly possessing eidetic memory)
Sweden - Popular Music (arriving tomorrow from Amazon)
Finland - The Year of the Hare (on request from my library)

Having decided to explore the rest of Europe later in the trip, on my way back to England, I will shortly be in need of suggestions for Russia (other than Tolstoy, please), Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Any suggestions?

Russia (other than Tolstoy, please)

Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita?

Georgia,

I know what you said there. But Tolstoy's novella Hadji Murad is set in Georgia (and Chechnya).

You may be hard-pressed to find other Georgian novels.

--M.