Read Around Europe Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Europe.
Best books from Europe (2679)
1851.
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Nikolaĭ Semenovich Leskov EN
RussiaDescription:
In this powerful and brutal short story, Leskov demonstrates the enduring truth of the Shakespearean archetype joltingly displaced to the heartland of Russia. Chastened and stifled by her marriage of convenience to a man twice her age, the young Katerina Lvovna goes yawning about the house, missing the barefoot freedom of her childhood, until she meets the feckless steward Sergei Filipych. Sergei proceeds to seduce Katerina, as he has done half the women in the town, not realizing that her passion, once freed, will attach to him so fiercely that Katerina will do anything to keep hold of him. J... continue
1852.
Description:
A satire about the Soviet space program finds Omon, who has dreamed of space flight all of his life, enrolled as a cosmonaut only to learn that his task will be piloting a supposedly unmanned lunar vehicle to the Moon and remaining there to die.
1853.
There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby : Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya EN
Description:
New York Times Bestseller Winner of the World Fantasy Award One of New York magazine’s 10 Best Books of the Year One of NPR’s 5 Best Works of Foreign Fiction The celebrated scary fairy tales of Russia’s preeminent contemporary fiction writer—the author of the prizewinning memoir about growing up in Stalinist Russia, The Girl from the Metropol Hotel Vanishings and aparitions, nightmares and twists of fate, mysterious ailments and supernatural interventions haunt these stories by the Russian master Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, heir to the spellbinding tradition of Gogol and Poe. Blending the miracul... continue
1854.
Description:
The year 2005 marks Ayn Rand's Centennial Year. Ayn Rand's classic tale of a future dark age of the greatWe'a world that deprives individuals of name, independence, and values'anticipates her later masterpieces, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
1855.
1914 The Red Wheel by Aleksandr Isaevič Solženicyn EN
Description:
In his monumental narrative of the outbreak of the First World War and the ill-fated Russian offensive into East Prussia, Solzhenitsyn has written what Nina Krushcheva, in The Nation , calls "a dramatically new interpretation of Russian history." The assassination of tsarist prime minister Pyotr Stolypin, a crucial event in the years leading up to the Revolution of 1917, is reconstructed from the alienating viewpoints of historical witnesses. The sole voice of reason among the advisers to Tsar Nikolai II, Stolypin died at the hands of the anarchist Mordko Bogrov, and with him perishe... continue
1857.
Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky EN
Description:
A collection of powerful stories by one of the masters of Russian literature, illustrating Fyodor Dostoyevsky's thoughts on political philosophy, religion and above all, humanity. From the primitive peasant who kills without understanding that he is destroying a human life, to the anxious antihero of Notes From Underground—a man who both craves and despises affection—this volume and its often-tormented characters showcase Dostoyevsky’s evolving outlook on man’s fate. The compelling works presented here were written at distinct periods in the author’s life, at decisive moments in his groping fo... continue
1858.
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky EN
Description:
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's final novel, considered to be the culmination of his life's work, "The Brothers Karamazov" is the story of the murder of Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, whose four sons are all to some degree complicit in the crime. Fyodor is a contemptible man who during his two marriages has three sons, Dmitri, Ivan, and Alexei. A fourth, Pavel, whom he employs as his servant, is suspected to be the illegitimate product of a union with "Reeking Lizaveta," a mute woman of the street who died in childbirth. Fyodor takes little interest in the raising of his children and as a result finds himse... continue
1859.
Despair by Vladimir Nabokov EN
Description:
Extensively revised by Nabokov in 1965--thirty years after its original publication--Despair is the wickedly inventive and richly derisive story of Hermann, a man who undertakes the perfect crime--his own murder.
1860.
The Genius Under the Table : Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin EN
Description:
Eugene Yelchin recounts growing up in Cold War Russia.