This was my literary challenge to read 50 books set in different parts of the world. I began this challenge some time in 2018 and completed it in March 2022. The books below correspond to plot locations and not to the authors’ countries of origin.
EUROPE
- AUSTRIA: Letter from an Unknown Woman by Stefan Zweig
- CZECH REPUBLIC, THE: Melmoth by Sarah Perry
- DENMARK: Havoc by Tom Kristensen
- FRANCE: The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux
- HUNGARY: Satantango by Laszlo Krasznahorkai
- ICELAND: Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
- ITALY: The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
- IRELAND: The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Tóibín
- NETHERLANDS, THE: The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker
- NORWAY: Hunger by Knut Hamsun
- POLAND: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
- PORTUGAL: The Crime of Father Amaro by Jose Maria de Eca de Queiros
- RUSSIA: White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- SWEDEN: Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
- SWITZERLAND: Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
- TURKEY: My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk (The Ottoman Empire)
- UK, THE: The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
THE MIDDLE EAST
- EGYPT: Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz
- JORDAN: Pillars of Salt by Fadia Faqir
- LEBANON: White Masks by Elias Khoury
AFRICA
- BOTSWANA: When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head
- CHAD: The Roots of Heaven by Romain Gary
- DRC, THE: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (The Belgian Congo)
- MOROCCO: Tangerine by Christine Mangan
- NIGERIA: The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma
- SOMALIA: The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed
- TUNISIA: The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith
- AFGHANISTAN: A House Without Windows by Nadia Hashimi
- CHINA: Half a Lifelong Romance by Eileen Chang
- INDIA: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- JAPAN: Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura
- PAKISTAN: Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid
- PHILIPPINES, THE: Fires on the Plain by Shōhei Ōoka
- SOUTH KOREA: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
- THAILAND: Smoking Poppy by Graham Joyce
NORTH AMERICA
- CANADA: The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny
- MEXICO: Amulet by Roberto Bolaño
- US, THE: News of the World by Paulette Jiles
THE CARIBBEAN
- Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau (Martinique, France)
- Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe, France)
- Golden Child by Claire Adam (Trinidad and Tobago)
- Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez (The Dominican Republic)
- ARGENTINA: The Seven Madmen by Roberto Arlt
- BRAZIL: The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
- CHILE: By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño
- COLOMBIA: Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
- PERU: The Time of the Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa
- VENEZUELA: The Lost Steps by Alejo Carpentier
OCEANIA
- AUSTRALIA: The Dry by Jane Harper
- NEW ZEALAND: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Thoughts on Papyrus 