books by foreign authors

[huggerwocky]

meaning: non american authors

which ones do you love, which one do you recommend?I need to expand my library waiting list

[mammastar2]

That's pretty broad, to those of us non-Americans out there!

I'm assuming other writers in English are ok, too?

A few random suggestions:

- Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Slowness, The Joke) - he's Czech
- Thomas Fontane (Effi Briest) - this is 19th century, German
- Gunter Grass - The Tin Drum - he's German
- Collette - French
- Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient, Running with the Family) - Sri Lankan - Canadian

[Wilhemina]

Gabriel Garcia Marquez (of course!) - Columbian. I haven't read anything of his I didn't LOVE (and I've read everything that has been translated).

Arturo Perez Reverte - Spanish. I particularly enjoyed The Club Dumas and The Flanders Panel. Sort of upscale, literary thrillers. A bit along the lines of Umberto Eco's In The Name of the Rose, but not historical.

Jumpta Lahiri - Indian. I've only read her short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, but I understand anything by her is just as good.

Jung Chang - Chinese. I read a recommendation for Wild Swans here at MDC some time ago and finally got around to reading it. Like Lahiri she writes in English (so not translated).

Italo Calvino - Italian. If On A Winter's Night A Traveler is very intriguing in content and structure.

[calpurnia]

Etienne Van Heerden - a South African writer who writes orginally in Afrikaans, widely available in translation - especially The Long Silence of Mario Salvati - magic realism.

Margaret Atwood (Canadian ) - The Handmaid's Tale , Alias Grace , & The Blind Assasin are my favourites. Oryx & Crake also good.

Isabel Allende is beautiful. Especially The House of Spirits . Chilean, magic realism.

Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy - Indian. Massive book, but don't let that put you off! Think of it as several books rolled into one. A family saga, in a way, set in India shortly after Independence.

Antoni Libera - Madame. Polish writer, book set in Poland in the 1960s, a rite of passage novel.

[mammastar2]

Oh yes, Vikram Seth by all means!

Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children, too. Also The Satanic Verses.

Smilla's Sense of Snow - Peter Hoeg - wonderful book with a beautiful sense of place.

[Queen Gwen]

Hmm, my top votes are already taken: Italo Calvino, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende.

[Birth Junky]

Agate Nesaule (Latvian): A Woman in Amber, about the author's experiences in Latvia pre-WWII and her family's escape to America.

[sevenkids]

I loooooove Allende and Marquez!

Also, Jorge Amado, Brazilian.
Teita is one of my all time favourite books.

[huggerwocky]

Originally Posted by mammastar2

That's pretty broad, to those of us non-Americans out there!

I'm assuming other writers in English are ok, too?

A few random suggestions:

- Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Slowness, The Joke) - he's Czech
- Thomas Fontane (Effi Briest) - this is 19th century, German
- Gunter Grass - The Tin Drum - he's German
- Collette - French
- Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient, Running with the Family) - Sri Lankan - Canadian

I tried Kundera but wouldn't get into his style....read Grass,too, he's brilliant but that doesn't make me want to read more from him

I LOVE Fontane

I noted down ondaatje and collete, maybe my library will have something.

[huggerwocky]

Originally Posted by Wilhemina

Gabriel Garcia Marquez (of course!) - Columbian. I haven't read anything of his I didn't LOVE (and I've read everything that has been translated).

Arturo Perez Reverte - Spanish. I particularly enjoyed The Club Dumas and The Flanders Panel. Sort of upscale, literary thrillers. A bit along the lines of Umberto Eco's In The Name of the Rose, but not historical.

Jumpta Lahiri - Indian. I've only read her short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, but I understand anything by her is just as good.

Jung Chang - Chinese. I read a recommendation for Wild Swans here at MDC some time ago and finally got around to reading it. Like Lahiri she writes in English (so not translated).

Italo Calvino - Italian. If On A Winter's Night A Traveler is very intriguing in content and structure.

I noted down calvino,Chang and Reverte, the other ones I know, thank you

[huggerwocky]

Originally Posted by calpurnia

Etienne Van Heerden - a South African writer who writes orginally in Afrikaans, widely available in translation - especially The Long Silence of Mario Salvati - magic realism.

Margaret Atwood (Canadian ) - The Handmaid's Tale , Alias Grace , & The Blind Assasin are my favourites. Oryx & Crake also good.

Isabel Allende is beautiful. Especially The House of Spirits . Chilean, magic realism.

Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy - Indian. Massive book, but don't let that put you off! Think of it as several books rolled into one. A family saga, in a way, set in India shortly after Independence.

Antoni Libera - Madame. Polish writer, book set in Poland in the 1960s, a rite of passage novel.

Vikram Seth sounds familiar somehow *ponderponderponder*

Tahnk you

[huggerwocky]

Originally Posted by mammastar2

Oh yes, Vikram Seth by all means!

Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children, too. Also The Satanic Verses.

Smilla's Sense of Snow - Peter Hoeg - wonderful book with a beautiful sense of place.

I can't stand Rushdie,lol :

Hoeg is great though

[wildmonkeys]

I love Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez as well

I also adore the book "Cry the Beloved Country" I think the author's name is Alan Patton but am not sure.

Thanks for the recommendations everybody - will try some of these!

BJ
Barney & Ben

[marieangela]

I second or third Italo Calvino.
How do you feel about Russian authors? Haven't read them in a while, but have enjoyed Bulgakov, Dostoyevsky, Nabokov and Tolstoy.

[calpurnia]

Originally Posted by wildmonkeys

I also adore the book "Cry the Beloved Country" I think the author's name is Alan Patton but am not sure.

Alan Paton, one "t". Fabulous book.

Ooh, more African books!

Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa by Peter Godwin
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane
The Famished Road by Ben Okri
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith


A French book I love is Les Grand Meaulnes by Alain Fournier (that's the title in translation as well)

[marieangela]

Ah, yes, I had forgotten about Alexander McCall Smith. I believe there are five books in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I've read the first two so far. Enjoyable and light.

[nicole lisa]

A lot of my faves have already been mentioned. I'll add:

Funny Boy, Shyam Selvadurai, Sri Lankan/Canadian

The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy, Indian

Any of Pablo Neruda's books of poetry, Chilean

[mammastar2]

Jeepers, I'm striking out!

Actually, I didn't like The Tin Drum at all when I read it - I just find it's really stuck with me in interesting ways.

If you like Fontane, have you read Flaubert, particularly Madame Bovary? It's a terrific, layered read.

[huggerwocky]

Originally Posted by mammastar2

If you like Fontane, have you read Flaubert, particularly Madame Bovary? It's a terrific, layered read.

of course I have Found it haunting though...

[Wilhemina]

really enjoying this thread and taking notes!

Alexander McCall Smith? I haven't read these, but they have been on my "list" for a while to try. I got the impression, though that while the books were set in Africa the author wasn't African. Note to self - must do more careful research!