meaning: non american authors

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

I loooooove Allende and Marquez!

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

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.

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 :)

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 :)

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 :bag:

Hoeg is great though :)

I love Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez as well :thumb

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

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.

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

:nod

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)

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.

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

Jeepers, I'm striking out! :innocent

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.

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...

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!

Aagn, this is hopeless! :LOL

Huggerwocky, can I get book recommendations from you, instead?

I would have suggested many of the authors already mentioned. For my book club my upcoming pick is to be Gerd Brantenberg's Egalia's Daughters: A Satire of the Sexes (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1878067583/qid=1095702508/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-3869509-7155300?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) I thought it might provoke some interesting discussion for our group. It is a translation and is somewhat dated. I had some issues with it in certain parts but it was a quick and humorous read nonetheless. At least it's something no one else has suggested! :)

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!

As far as I understand, the author grew up in Africa (Zimbabwe?) and has lived for some time in Botswana. He now lives & works in Edinburgh.

Yup, got it

Alexander McCall Smith was born in Zimbabwe (called Southern Rhodesia at the time) and was educated there. He became a law professor in Scotland, and it was in this role that he first returned to Africa to work in Botswana, where he helped to set up a new law school at the University of Botswana. He is currently Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh.

Martin Amis (UK)~~everything of his is great; "Money" was a personal fave

Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)~~probably enjoy if you like Italo Calvino

Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina)~~a good fit for David Foster Wallace fans

Chitra Divakaruni (born in India; moved to US at 19)~~"Mistress of Spices" is wonderful

Aagn, this is hopeless! :LOL

Huggerwocky, can I get book recommendations from you, instead?

ok, let me see... :wink

zeno cosini by italo svevo (italian)

the midaq alley triology by naguib machfouz (spelling?) (egyptian)

a house for mr. biswas by v.s naipaul (indian/trinidad)

all books by Henning Mankell (swedish)

all books by MARIANNE FREDRIKSSON (swedish)

blindness by Jose saramago (loved it, very unusual story) (portugese)

Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran by Eric-Emmanuel Schmidt (movie is great,too!) (french)

The Author of Himself: The Life of Marcel Reich-Ranicki ( autobiography , i enjoyed it very very much) (german)

the perfume by Patrick Süßkind (german)

that should keep you busy for a while :)

Hmm, maybe I should cut out of work early today and go to the library!

Thanks a bunch. :)

What a great thread. I need to bookmark this thread.

Two favorites that I don't think I saw listed:

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Sijie Dai

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

the midaq alley triology by naguib machfouz (spelling?) (egyptian)

YES!! I was trying to remember this one! Thank you :D

ooh me me me me me me me

[I'm too tired to read through the thread first, so apologies for repeats :bag: ]

"If On A Winter's Night a Traveler" Italo Calvino
"The Name of the Rose" Umberto Eco
"How to Travel With a Salmon" Umberto Eco
"The Overcoat" Nikolai Gogol (I know it's a short story, it's just one of my favs)
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" Gabriel Garcia Marquez (gave my son his middle name after I read that book)
"Anna Karenina" Tolstoy
"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and every book in the series by Douglas Adams (he was British, right? if not :bag: )
"The Alchemist" Paulo Coehlo

Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)~~probably enjoy if you like Italo Calvino


YEAH!! I forgot him.


the perfume by Patrick Süßkind (german)

double YEAH!! :twothumbs :twothumbs

YES!! I was trying to remember this one! Thank you :D


I should read them again..it's been a couple of years now :D

Ingrid Noll : the Pharmacist (german)

I'm a big Cdn Lit fanatic:

Mordecai Richler
Margaret Atwood
Robertson Davies
Yann Martel
Alice Munroe
Jane Urqart

I recommend "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" by Alexandra something or other. It's about her childhood in Rhodesia.

Isabel Allende
Bessie Head (I think that's her name, I read some of her stuff in college and loved it. African author)
LOVED Smilla's Sense of Snow

Banana Yoshimoto (Japanese) - My favorite novel by her is N.P.

Herbjorg Wassmo (Norweigian) - Dina's book

Another vote for Dostoyevsky, (and the other Russian greats as well, but he's the best IMO.)
Yup, Margaret Atwood's good too.

Some of my favourites:

The Burning Shore by Wilbur Smith (African) -- a fantastic adventure story with a great, strong female heroine.

Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse (Japanese) -- account of the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Daughters of Copper Woman by Anne Cameron (Canadian) -- tales of the Native North Americans of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, from a womanist perspective.

The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master translated by Daniel Ladinsky (Persian) -- Beautiful, magical, humorous poetry about the human search for God.

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende (German) -- my favourite book of all time.

Wulfsyarn by Phillip Mann (New Zealand) -- philosophical science fiction.

Flight of the Albatross and A Rumour of Otters both by Deborah Savage (New Zealand) -- two great coming-of-age novels.

oh, i would love to have help remembering the name of this indian author who wrote a book I really loved - I can't remember details, just that overall feeling of being drawn in. It was set in India, during the time when there were these "emergencies"??? I'm really showing my ignorance... I forget a lot of it, there were a lot of tragedies, sad things, but really lovely storytelling. oh, dang. does this ring any bells?