Popular European Memoir Books
Find memoir books written by authors from Europe for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (155)
1.
32 Yolks : From My Mother's Table to Working the Line by Eric Ripert, Veronica Chambers EN
FranceDescription:
"Before he earned his third Michelin star at his iconic restaurant, Le Bernardin, the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef of the Year, became a regular guest judge on Bravo's Top Chef, even before he knew how to make a proper omelet, Eric Ripert was a young boy in the South of France who felt that his world had come to an end. At the age of five, his parents went through a bitter divorce. Eric moved away with his mother, whose new husband, Serge, quickly grew to resent Eric and seemed to delight in making him miserable. The only place Eric felt at home was the kitchen, where his mother trie... continue
Spain3.
A Guest in My Own Country: A Hungarian Life by George Konrad EN
HungaryDescription:
Winner of the 2007 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Biography, Autobiography & Memoir A powerful memoir of war, politics, literature, and family life by one of Europe's leading intellectuals. When George Konrad was a child of eleven, he, his sister, and two cousins managed to flee to Budapest from the Hungarian countryside the day before deportations swept through his home town. Ultimately, they were the only Jewish children of the town to survive the Holocaust. A Guest in My Own Country recalls the life of one of Eastern Europe's most accomplished modern writers, beginning with h... continue
4.
A Sorrow Beyond Dreams : A Life Story by Peter Handke EN
AustriaDescription:
The avant-garde Austrian novelist and playwright examines his mother's life, which spanned the Nazi era, the war, and the postwar consumer economy, ending in suicide; while recording his rage over the problems that his mother left for him to solve after her death.
5.
A Stranger in My Own Country : The 1944 Prison Diary by Hans Fallada EN
GermanyDescription:
“I lived the same life as everyone else, the life of ordinary people, the masses.” Sitting in a prison cell in the autumn of 1944, the German author Hans Fallada sums up his life under the National Socialist dictatorship, the time of “inward emigration”. Under conditions of close confinement, in constant fear of discovery, he writes himself free from the nightmare of the Nazi years. He records his thoughts about spying and denunciation, about the threat to his livelihood and his literary work and about the fate of many friends and contemporaries. The confessional mode did not come naturally to... continue
6.
A Very Easy Death by Simone De Beauvoir EN
Description:
"[This book] has long been considered one of Simone de Beauvoir's masterpieces. The profoundly moving, day-by-day recounting of her mother's death, it is a deeply personal story that reveals a new side of the author and adds a dimension to the self-portrait that her other books have created. But it stands by itself too, as a classic account of an all-too-familiar yet unknown experience. Powerful and touching--and sometimes shocking--it is a story no reader is likely to forget."--p. [4] of cover.
7.
A Woman in Berlin : Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary by Marta Hillers EN
Description:
For eight weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the Russian army, a young woman kept a daily record of life in her apartment building and among its residents. She tells of the shameful indignities to which women in a conquered city are always subject.
8.
A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter EN
Country: Europe / 
Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Description:
“An epic story, elegantly told and full of mystery.” — Maggie Shipstead, author of Great Circle A rediscovered classic memoir - the mesmerizingly beautiful account of one woman's year spent living in a remote hut in the Arctic This rediscovered classic memoir tells the incredible tale of a woman defying society's expectations to find freedom and peace in the adventure of a lifetime. In 1934, the painter Christiane Ritter leaves her comfortable life in Austria and travels to the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen, to spend a year there with her husband. She thinks it will be a relaxing trip, a... continue
9.
A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle EN
Country: Europe / 
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Description:
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this witty and warm-hearted account, Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron with his wife and two large dogs. He endures January's frosty mistral as it comes howling down the Rhône Valley, discovers the secrets of goat racing through the middle of town, and delights in the glorious regional cuisine. A Year in Provence transports us into all the earthy pleasures of Provençal life and lets us live vicariously at a tempo governed by seasons, not by days.... continue
10.
Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad EN
Country: Europe / United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Description:
When Englishman Chris Broad landed in a rural village in northern Japan he wondered if he'd made a huge mistake. With no knowledge of the language and zero teaching experience, was he was about to be the most quickly fired English teacher in Japan's history? Abroad in Japan charts a decade of living in a foreign land and the chaos and culture clash that comes with it. Packed with hilarious and fascinating stories, this book seeks out to unravel one the world's most mysterious and impenetrable cultures.