Help Wanted for an Olympic Challenge

[abecedarian]

abecedarian:

I had another root through my bookshelves and found "Northern Lights" by Drago Jancar who is a Slovenian writer, I suspect I didn't mention it before as it didn't make much impression on me.*
Anyway it led me to the publishers website, and the section they call "Writings from an unbound Europe". There seem to be titles from a number of difficult to find Eastern European countires, with four choices for Bosnia & Herzegovina!

Hope this helps,

K-S

*Others liked it though, see review.

Thanks! I'll have fun looking around. Maybe I ought to make that a double batch of chocolate chip cookies..where shall I send them?

 

[Stewart]

Algeria: Broken April-Ismael Kadare

Abec, Albert Camus may be a more appropriate suggestion for Algeria. Ismail Kadare is Albanian.

 

[abecedarian]

Abec, Albert Camus may be a more appropriate suggestion for Algeria. Ismail Kadare is Albanian.

I knew that! My evil twin was in a hurry when she typed the list

 

[abecedarian]

I thought that until I tried to track down some of Zolipara's Norwegien recommendations. I must get back to them...

My new working definition of obscure:
If I have to ask my favorite interlibrary loan lady(Barb)to request an English translation from outside my state, and the search goes out of country..that's obscure
I started looking at some of the books and authors from that link you posted, and so far I've found at least one copy of some work for each author I've tried. I think I did about 10 searches last night, not that I requested that many at once, you understand I was just curious to see what might be available in Kansas. If I read Russian, I could do very well indeed!

 

[abecedarian]

Just found the following on the Guardian website which those (i.e. Kenny) looking for novelists from various countries may enjoy having a browse of.

It's the Guardian's World Book Tour Blog where each month they visit a different country and people are invited to list books that they like from that country. It started this year and thus far they have visited Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, Canada, Turkey, Japan. They are currently in Italy.

This is a truly cool resource! Of course you realize one could get lost here..

 

[Dogmatix]

Abecedarian. I was wondering; could you indulge us with a list of what you've read for the challenge so far and give us a thumbs up or down? I've been following your thread for a while and have followed many of the links and lists of recommendations from others but I was hoping you might consolidate (ie make it easy for lazy me) what you've read so far for the Challenge and have enjoyed. Thanks.

 

[abecedarian]

Abecedarian. I was wondering; could you indulge us with a list of what you've read for the challenge so far and give us a thumbs up or down? I've been following your thread for a while and have followed many of the links and lists of recommendations from others but I was hoping you might consolidate (ie make it easy for lazy me) what you've read so far for the Challenge and have enjoyed. Thanks.

Will do doc!

 

[abecedarian]

Updated list:

Canada: Tigana-Guy Gavriel Kay (excellent)
Albania: Broken April-Ismael Kadare (excellent)
Chinese Taipai: The Butcher's Wife- Li Ang (so-so)
Iceland: The Fish Can Sing-Halldor Luxness (excellent)
New Zealand: Whale Rider-Witi Ihimaera (fine)
Nigeria: Things Fall Apart-Chinua Achebe (excellent)
Sri Lanka: Reef- Ramesh Gunesekera (so-so)
Ireland: 1. Suffer the Little Children-Mary Raftery (very good)
2. Ireland: A Novel-Frank Delaney (fine)3. Barrytown Trilogy: The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van (Excellent)
Peru: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter-Mario Vargas Llosa (Blah)
Malaysia: The Rice Mother-Rani Manicka (highly recommended)
Norway: The Women at the Pump- Knut Hamsun (fine, but I'd rather try another title by this author)
Bolivia:The Fat Man From La Paz-ed. Rosario Santos (Blah)
England:1. Anansi Boys-Neil Gaiman(excellent) 2. Transgressions-Sarah Dunant(Fine) 3. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell-Susanna Clarke (Fine-but much too long)
Argentina: The Wandering Unicorn-Manuel Mujica Lainez (so-so)
Mozambique-Voices Made Night-Mia Cuoto finely written, just not my cuppa)
USA-1.Dan Eldon: The Art of Life-Jennifer New(excellent) 2. The Pearl- John Steinbeck (Fine)
Haiti-Breath,Eyes, Memory-Edwidge Danticat (Excellent)
India- Shalimar the Clown-Salman Rushie (Fine)
Pakhistan- Broken Verses- Kamila Shamsie ( highly recommended)
Australia- Dirt Music-Tim Winton (Excellent)
USA-The Pearl-John Steinbeck (Fine)
Iran- Reading Lolita in Tehran-Azar Nafisi (highly recommended)
Sweden- Barabbas-Par Lagerkvist (Fine)
Afghanistan- A Bed of Red Flowers-Nelofer Pazira(Fine)
Botswanna-Tears of the Giraffe-Alexander McCall Smith (good)
Finland- Troll- Johanna Sinisalo(good)
Spain-The Shadow of the Wind-Carlos Ruiz Zafron (highly recommended)
Japan-The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea-Yukio Mishima (excellent)
Korea-Korea Unmasked-Wonbok RHIE (okay..hard to track down, so look for something else)
Germany- The Reader-Bernhard Schlink (Fine)
Morocco-Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Childhood-Fatima Mernissi (Fine)
South Africa-Cry, the Beloved Country-Alan Paton (Excellent)
Dominican Republic-In the Time of the Butterflies-Julia Alvarez (Excellent, will read more Alvarez in future)
Russia-Lolita-Vladimir Nabakov (Excellent!)
Scotland-Sunset Song-Lewis Grassic Gibbon(Excellent)
Italy- The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana-Umberto Eco (Fine)
Samoa-Where We Once Belonged- Sia Figiel (blah)
Guatemala-The Long Night of White Chickens-Francisco Goldman (blah)
Czech Republic-Love and Garbage-Ivan Klima (in progress, but seems promising)



Note: I corrected my earlier errors in reporting which country Ismael Kadare was from..he is Albanian, not Algerian, as Stewart was kind enough to point out. Let's see, any other authors I can relocate while I'm on a roll Maybe I can start a virtual relocation program for international writers..can't you imagine the advertising slogans?

 

[Stewart]

Maybe I can start a virtual relocation program for international writers..

We already have one; it's called France. Kadare, Xingjian, Kundera...

 

[abecedarian]

We already have one; it's called France. Kadare,
Xingjian, Kundera...

Oh sure, if you want to make them pack their bags...my way requires no actual physical movement on the part of these already overworked people

 

[Dogmatix]

abc: Thanks so much for the effort! I'm printing your list and will be sure to check out your "recommendeds". Perhaps you will post your list again when you complete your journey? I'm sure others would like to benefit from your efforts as much as I.

Thanks again!

 

[Kenny Shovel]

Heinemann's African Writers Series seems to have titles from 20 different countires.

Edit: There's also lists on Wikipedia for South Asian & Latin-American authors. Don't know if they'll help you or not.

 

[Stewart]

abec, why not get yourself a Blog, perhaps, and tell us all about the ups and downs blogstyle.

 

[abecedarian]

Heinemann's African Writers Series seems to have titles from 20 different countires.

Edit: There's also lists on Wikipedia for South Asian & Latin-American authors. Don't know if they'll help you or not.

I've seen wikipedia's lists-very useful! I had not seen the Heinemann's site..looks promising..

I've had good luck with amazon also. They have a separate listing for World Literature under their fiction and literature section. Those are divided among various world regions and nationalities. I would like to discover how to do similar searches in nonfiction as well.

 

[Kenny Shovel]

Tajikistan - Hurramabad by Andrei Volos

 

[Stewart]

Was looking at the confirmed events at the Edinburgh Book Festival and noticed there was a Uzbek author called Hamid Ismailov in the Foreign Literature category. His writing, apparently, is surreal but, if struggling for anything else, he may be the one to write off Uzbekistan from the list.

 

[abecedarian]

Thanks KS and Stewart!

Wish I could attend the Edinburgh Book Festival..Stewart forgot to mention that Ismail Kadare would be there I made a word document of the list of foriegn authors attending; should be fun tracking them down..

 

[Stewart]

Wish I could attend the Edinburgh Book Festival.

Same here. But not this year; better days out planned.

Stewart forgot to mention that Ismail Kadare would be there

The one that would interest me would be Atiq Rahimi, having read Earth And Ashes by him. As an Afghan author goes, his work had much more grit than that drab Americanised drivel that Khaled Hosseini scribbled.

 

[abecedarian]

The one that would interest me would be Atiq Rahimi, having read Earth And Ashes by him. As an Afghan author goes, his work had much more grit than that drab Americanised drivel that Khaled Hosseini scribbled.

Yours isn't the only negative response I've seen to The Kite Runner, so I've steered away from that one. It sure has gotten plenty of publicity though, hasn't it?
I didn't reckognize the American guest in the lineup, but I'm grateful to see it wasn't anyone embarrasing I'd still like to attend..

 

[Stewart]

I didn't reckognize the American guest in the lineup, but I'm grateful to see it wasn't anyone embarrasing I'd still like to attend..

There's quite a few Americans there although I can only seem to remember Rick Moody as having an hour slot somewhere. Only because I saw him do a reading to six people in Borders a few months back and his reading, a scene about werewolves, wasn't all that engaging - probably better to read than to have a monotone author waffle it at you.

As for Kadare, I read Spring Flowers, Spring Frost last week. I can't say I enjoyed it all that much, although I will seek out Broken April and The Three Arched Bridge as they do interest me.