Popular European Cultural Books
Find cultural books written by authors from Europe for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (63)
51.
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting : A Novel by Milan Kundera EN
Country: Europe / 
Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Description:
Rich in its stories, characters, and imaginative range, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is the novel that brought Milan Kundera his first big international success in the late 1970s. Like all his work, it is valuable for far more than its historical implications. In seven wonderfully integrated parts, different aspects of human existence are magnified and reduced, reordered and emphasized, newly examined, analyzed, and experienced.
52.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare EN
Country: Europe / 
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Description:
Hamlet. Romeo and Juliet. Henry V. Macbeth. A Midsummer Night's Dream. King Lear. Lovers of literature will immediately recognise these as signature works of William Shakespeare, whose plays still rank as the greatest dramas ever produced in the English language four centuries after they were written. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare collects all thirty-seven of the immortal Bard's comedies, tragedies, and historical plays in a beautiful edition. This volume also features Shakespeare's complete poetry, including the sonnets. With this beautiful edition, you can enjoy Shakespeare's end... continue
53.
The Convert by Stefan Hertmans EN
BelgiumDescription:
Finalist for the 2020 National Jewish Book Awards In this dazzling work of historical fiction, the Man Booker International–long-listed author of War and Turpentine reconstructs the tragic story of a medieval noblewoman who leaves her home and family for the love of a Jewish boy. In eleventh-century France, Vigdis Adelaïs, a young woman from a prosperous Christian family, falls in love with David Todros, a rabbi’s son and yeshiva student. To be together, the couple must flee their city, and Vigdis must renounce her life of privilege and comfort. Pursued by her father’s knights and in constant ... continue
54.
The Country Where No One Ever Dies by Ornela Vorpsi EN
AlbaniaDescription:
Victimized by dysfunctional family dynamics while struggling with the harsh realities of Albania's communist regime, a young girl endures everyday violence and the perpetual changing of her own identity, in an English translation of an award-winning first novel. Original.
55.
The Fugitives by Jamal Mahjoub EN
Country: Europe / United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Description:
Moving from Khartoum, Sudan, to Washington, D.C., and then across the US in a road trip unlike any other, this is a book about music, friendship and the desire for home
56.
The Hotel Tito : A Novel by Ivana Bodrožić EN
CroatiaDescription:
Winner of the Prix Ulysse for best debut novel in France Winner in Croatia and the Balkan region of the Kočićevo Pero Award, the Josip and Ivan Kozarac Award, and the Kiklop Award for the best work of fiction When the Croatian War of Independence breaks out in her hometown of Vukovar in the summer of 1991 she is nine years old, nestled within the embrace of family with her father, mother, and older brother. She is sent to a seaside vacation to be far from the hostilities. Meanwhile, her father has disappeared while fighting with the Croatian forces. By the time she returns at summer’s end ever... continue
57.
The mauve umbrella by Alki Zei EN
GreeceDescription:
The Mauve Umbrella is a story of two worlds – the adult world of approaching war and the children’s world of close friendships, rivalry and games of the imagination. Eleftheria lives somewhere in Marousi, Athens, with her parents and younger, identical twin, brothers. It is shortly before the war in 1940 and she is nine, going on ten. The children’s best friend is the daughter of a rich family in the neighbourhood. Later, a young French boy arrives, escaping from Nazi occupied France, to live with his French uncle, who lives in the apartment above Eleftheria’s family.
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58.
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe EN
GermanyDescription:
"Be on your guard … and take care not to fall in love!" Visiting an idyllic German village, Werther, a sensitive and romantic young man, meets and falls in love with sweet-natured Lotte. Although he realizes that Lotte is to marry Albert, he is unable to subdue his passion for her and his infatuation torments him to the point of absolute despair. The first great ‘confessional’ novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther draws both on Goethe’s own unrequited love for Charlotte Buff and on the death of his friend Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem. The book was an immediate success and a cult rapidly grew up around... continue
59.
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist EN
SwedenDescription:
‘I liked The Unit very much... I know you will be riveted, as I was.’ Margaret Atwood ‘Echoing work by Marge Piercy and Margaret Atwood, The Unit is as thought-provoking as it is compulsively readable.’ Jessica Crispin, NPR.org Ninni Holmqvist’s eerie dystopian novel envisions a society in the not-so-distant future where men and women deemed economically worthless are sent to a retirement community called the Unit. With lavish apartments set amongst beautiful gardens and state-of-the-art facilities, elaborate gourmet meals, and wonderful music and art, they are free of financial worries and wa... continue
France