Read Around Europe Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Europe.
Best books from Europe (2679)
1601.
The Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski EN
PolandDescription:
After walking through a portal in the Tower of the Swallow, thus narrowly escaping death, the Witcher girl, Ciri, finds herself in a completely different world... a world of the Elves. She is trapped with no way out. Time does not seem to exist and there are no obvious borders or portals to cross back into her home world. But this is Ciri, the child of prophecy, and she will not be defeated. She knows she must escape to finally rejoin the Witcher, Geralt, and his companions - and also to try to conquer her worst nightmare. Leo Bonhart, the man who chased, wounded and tortured Ciri, is still on... continue
1602.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk EN
Description:
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE "A brilliant literary murder mystery." —Chicago Tribune "Extraordinary. Tokarczuk's novel is funny, vivid, dangerous, and disturbing, and it raises some fierce questions about human behavior. My sincere admiration for her brilliant work." —Annie Proulx In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals ov... continue
1603.
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski EN
Description:
Geralt de Riv, a Witcher, uses his vast sorcerous powers to hunt down the monsters that threaten the world, but he soon discovers that not every monstrous-looking creature is evil, and not everything beautiful is good.
1604.
Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski EN
Description:
Poland, 1980. Anxious, disillusioned Ludwik Glowacki, soon to graduate university, has been sent along with the rest of his class to an agricultural camp. Here he meets Janusz - and together, they spend a dreamlike summer swimming in secluded lakes, reading forbidden books - and falling in love.
1605.
Description:
During the Holocaust years, many Jews struggled alone or with others against the terrors of the Nazis, risking their lives against overwhelming odds for the slimmest chance of survival. In Defiance, Nechama Tec offers a riveting history of one such group, a forest community in western Belorussia that would number more than 1,200 Jews by 1944 - including the elderly, women, and children. Tec recounts the astonishing details of how this Jewish partisan unit - hungry, exposed to the harsh winter weather, always on the lookout for German patrols - took on the duel role of fighters and rescuers. Fo... continue
1606.
The Pianist by Władysław Szpilman PL
Description:
The bestselling memoir of a Jewish pianist who survived the war in Warsaw against all odds. 'We are drawn in to share his surprise and then disbelief at the horrifying progress of events, all conveyed with an understated intimacy and dailiness that render them painfully close... riveting' OBSERVER On September 23, 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman played Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor live on the radio as shells exploded outside - so loudly that he couldn't hear his piano. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw: That day, a German bomb hit the station, and Polish Radio went off the air. T... continue
1607.
Description:
Kassandra, die äSeherinä, ist die schillerndste Frauenfigur der griechischen Mythologie. Sie sagte dem übermächtigen Troja den Untergang voraus und musste ihre Prophezeiung mit dem Leben bezahlen.
1609.
White Shroud by Antanas Škėma EN
Description:
Considered by many to be Lithuania's most important work of modernist fiction, this novel tells the story of Antanas Garsva, an emigre poet working as an elevator operator in a large New York hotel in the 1950s.
1610.
The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem EN
Description:
A space cruiser, in search of its sister ship, encounters beings descended from self-replicating machines. In the grand tradition of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, Stanisław Lem's The Invincible tells the story of a space cruiser sent to an obscure planet to determine the fate of a sister spaceship whose communication with Earth has abruptly ceased. Landing on the planet Regis III, navigator Rohan and his crew discover a form of life that has apparently evolved from autonomous, self-replicating machines—perhaps the survivors of a “robot war.” Rohan and his men are forced to confront the classic ... continue