world literature 101
books around the world to diversify your reading list
(this post is literally my magnum opus, because it probably took me 10+ hours to compile)
In honor of Han Kang winning the Nobel Prize for Literature (!!! so proud), I thought I’d share one of my favorite lists I’ve ever made (that is ever growing and that I will probably update sometime)—here is a list of books from around the world to diversify your reading! I think one of the best parts of being a reader is being able to glimpse into different cultures around the world that we otherwise would not get a chance to. Most of these are translated, but some are written directly in English (obviously, books from English speaking countries were written in English as well).
If they are translated, I urge you to also look up and acknowledge the translators as well because translating nuance and cultural implications from one language into another is never an easy feat. I like to keep a list of words in different languages that do not have direct one word translations to English—and I don’t think we realize in our day to day lives that language is not just about speaking, but a culmination of history and culture and traditions of the people that lived before us as well.
I tried to find as many books I read or heard good things about, but some countries have a very limited amount of translated literature (and I didn’t want to put ones that I wasn’t 100% sure was a good book, from a credible source). I have not read all of these, but these are all ones that I have heard good things about from friends and people whose reading taste I trust. I think there are about 200 books on here from 50+ countries, so I hope you enjoy. This is in alphabetical order (minus Korean literature, and I get to put that first because I’m Korean).
As always, I’ve linked Goodreads pages for your convenience. This post is for paid subscribers, but I have only paywalled the bottom half so free subscribers can get a lot of book recommendations too! I also do flash subscription giveaways often on my Instagram, so be sure to follow and keep an eye out.
If you have any recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll check them out and add it in!
[This post is too long for email, so it is best viewed on desktop or the app. I also might add more in the upcoming days, so please view this one on my site because the email is not final!]
KOREAN
Shoko’s Smile by Choi Eunyoung
Kim Ji Young, Born 1982 by Choi Nam-Joo
My Brilliant Life by Kim Ae-ran
Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park
AMERICAN
Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Franny and Zooey by J.D Salinger
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
ARGENTINE
Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Die, My Love by Ariana Harwicz
A Little Luck by Claudia Piñero
AUSTRALIAN
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
Marshmallow by Victoria Hannan
The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose
AUSTRIAN
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Journey into the Past by Stefan Zweig
BELGIAN
The Blue Room by Georges Simenon
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
BRAZILLIAN
An Apprenticeship or the Book of Pleasures by Clarice Lispector
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
Of Cattle and Men by Ana Paula Maia
CANADIAN
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
Anne of Green Gables by L.M Montgomery
I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
CHILEAN
The Savage Detectives by Robert Bolaño
My Tender Matador by Pedro Lemebel
CHINESE
Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang
Love in the New Millennium by Can Xue
COLOMBIAN
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
CZECH
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
DANISH
Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen
Either/Or by Søren Kierkegaard
DUTCH
The Discomfort of the Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
ENGLISH
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brönte
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer
FINNISH
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
The Kalevala (edited by Elias Lönnrot)
FRENCH
The Memoirs by Honoré de Balzac
The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
In the Café of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano
GEORGIAN
The Pear Field by Nana Ekvtimishvili
GERMAN
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin
GREEK
Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki
The Murderess by Alexandros Papadiamantis
HUNGARIAN
Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
INDIAN
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
INDONESIAN
Beauty is a Wound by Era Kurniawan