Inspired by ab_reads on Instagram, I have decided to give myself the challenge of reading one book from every country in the world!
To compile my list (below), I first hunted down a list of all the countries in the world. I found this one here, which I have used. I cannot vouch for its accuracy, because I am not a geographer, so if you see any glaring errors/oversights, please let me know in the comments below! I have then selected 52 to be getting started with (in bold), so I eventually have one for every week of a year, so a full year travelling the world (in book form)! This are purely based on where I know I have already read books from or where interests me in the world. I have tried to select at least one country from every continent, but again, let me know if I’ve missed any. I have then filled in all of the books I have already read (with the year in which I read it) and then put some suggested books for the countries I haven’t read from, based off of my goodreads to-read list and this blogpost. This is a work in progress and will be updated periodically, so please let me know if you have any suggestions!
As I am a Arabic and French to English translator, I have indicated whether I read the book in French or Arabic and which language it was translated from (if it was indeed translated). Unless otherwise indicated, I read the books in the original English.
NB: Most of the books I have chosen were written by an author from that country. Occasionally, I have chosen a book about that country, with an author from another country (indicated by an asterix).
- Afghanistan – The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- Albania
- Algeria
- Andorra
- Angola
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Argentina
- Armenia
- Australia – The Secret River by Kate Grenville
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Bahamas
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Barbados
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Belize
- Benin
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Brazil
- Brunei
- Bulgaria
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Cabo Verde
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Canada – Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (READ 2019 [and probably earlier when I was a child]). I reread this as an adult when the Netflix series ‘Anne with an E’ came out and was delighted to discover it was set in Canada (after I spend a month in Canada last year!)
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Chile
- China
- Colombia – Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez (READ 2019)
- Comoros
- Congo (Congo-Brazzaville)
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Cuba
- Cyprus
- Czechia (Czech Republic) – The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Translated from Czech by Michael Henry Heim.
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Denmark
- Djibouti
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- Egypt – An Egyptian Childhood by Taha Hussein (READ 2015)
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Estonia
- Eswatini (fmr. “Swaziland”)
- Ethiopia
- Fiji
- Finland
- France – Histoire d’O [The Story of O] by Pauline Réage (READ 2015)
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Georgia
- Germany – An Exclusive Love by Johanna Adorján.Translated from German by Anthea Bell.
- Ghana – Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- Greece
- Grenada
- Guatemala
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Holy See
- Honduras
- Holland
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India – A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
- Indonesia
- Iran – Nina is Not OK by Shappi Khorsandi
- Iraq
- Ireland – Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín (READ 2017)
- Israel
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan – Convenience Store Woman: A Novel by Sayaka Murata (translated from Japaense by Ginny Tapley Takemori) (READ 2020) I read this as it is the second book club pick for the Global Reads Book Club, created by Eve Lindemuth Bodeux.
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya – Out of Africa by Karen Blixen*
- Kiribati
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Latvia
- Lebanon
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mali
- Malta
- Marshall Islands
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Mexico
- Micronesia
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Morocco – L’Armée du Salut [The Salvation Army] by Abdellah Taïa (READ 2016). French. I chose this for a piece of coursework for my masters.
- Mozambique
- Myanmar (formerly Burma)
- Namibia
- Nauru
- Nepal
- Netherlands – The Happy Housewife by Heleen van Royen (READ 2014) Translated from Dutch.
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- Niger
- Nigeria – We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (READ 2016)
- North Korea – Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden*
- North Macedonia
- Norway – The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder (READ 2014, although again I’m sure I read it as a child) Translated from Norwegian.
- Oman
- Pakistan – I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
- Palau
- Palestine State
- Panama
- Papua New Guinea
- Paraguay
- Peru – Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Qatar
- Romania
- Russia – Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Translated from Russian.
- Rwanda – The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- San Marino
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Saudi Arabia – Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea
- Senegal – De purs hommes by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr. French.
- Serbia
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Solomon Islands
- Somalia
- South Africa – Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee (READ 2013)
- South Korea – Please Look After Mom by Kyung-sook Shin. Translated from Korean by Chin-young Kim
- South Sudan
- Spain – Yerma by Federico García Lorca (READ 2018). Translated from Spanish.
- Sri Lanka
- Sudan
- Suriname
- Sweden – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Translated from Swedish.
- Switzerland – The Nomad by Isabelle Eberhardt. French.
- Syria – Sahra ma’a Abi Khalil al-Qabbani [An Evening with Abu Khalil al-Qabbani] by Sa’adullah Wannous (READ 2017) Arabic. I read this for my BA dissertation.
- Tajikistan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste
- Togo
- Tonga
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
- Turkey – Snow by Orhan Pamuk
- Turkmenistan
- Tuvalu
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom – Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (READ 2012) – Being British, I have read many books from the U.K., so I thought I’d pick my favourite.
- United States of America – The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. (READ 2018) I actually wrote a study guide on this.
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
READ: 14/52 – 27%
READ: 14/196 – 0.07%