Read Around Europe Challenge

Read at least one book by an author from each country in Europe.

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Best books from Europe (2780)
231.
The Venice Train

The Venice Train by Georges Simenon EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / Belgium flag Belgium
Description:
'There were some weeks that were painful, nerve-racking. At the office or at home, in the middle of a meal, he would suddenly find his forehead bathed in sweat, a tightness in his chest, and at those times, feeling everyone's eyes on him was unbearable.' When an unusually inquisitive stranger strikes up conversation with Justin Calmar on the train home from a family holiday, his sun-drenched memories are overshadowed by an event that will change his life forever. As he travels alone through northern Italy and Switzerland, his carefully constructed life as an upright citizen begins to unravel, ... continue
Genre

232.

The Fortress by Meša Selimović EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
The Fortress is one of the most significant and fascinating novels to come out of the former Yugoslavia. Ahmet Shabo returns home to eighteenth-century Sarajevo from the war in Russia, numbed by the death in battle or suicide of nearly his entire military unit. In time he overcomes the anguish of war, only to find that he has emerged a reflective and contemplative man in a society that does not value, and will not tolerate, the subversive implications of these qualities.
Genre

233.

Death and the Dervish by Meša Selimović EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
Sheikh Nuruddin is a dervish at a Sarajevo monastery in the eighteenth century during the Turkish occupation. When his brother is arrested, he descends into the Kafkaesque world of the Turkish authorities in order to find out what has happened. As he does so, he begins to question his relations with society as a whole and, eventually, his life choices in general. Hugely successful when published in the 1960s, Death and the Dervish appears here in its first English translation.
Genre


235.

The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Description:
Chronicle of three centuries of Balkan life, centering around a great stone bridge in present-day Yugoslavia.

236.

Generation haram : Warum Schule lernen muss, allen eine Stimme zu geben by Melisa Erkurt DE

0 Ratings
Description:
Jetzt sind die Verlierer dran mit Reden! Die Journalistin und Lehrerin Melisa Erkurt gibt denen eine Stimme, die im System Schule nicht gehört werden. Ein Perspektivenwechsel in der Bildungsdebatte Melisa Erkurt ist als Kind mit ihren Eltern aus Bosnien nach Österreich gekommen. Sie hat studiert. Sie arbeitet als Lehrerin und Journalistin. Sie hat es geschafft. Doch sie ist eine Ausnahme. Denn am Ende eines Schuljahres entlässt sie die Klasse mit dem Wissen, dass die meisten ihrer Schülerinnen und Schüler nie ausreichend gut Deutsch sprechen werden, um ihr vorgezeic... continue

237.

Goodbye Sarajevo : A True Story of Courage, Love and Survival by Atka Reid, Hana Schofield EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Description:
A moving and compelling true story about two sisters fighting for survival in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war

238.

How The Soldier Repairs The Gramophone by Saša Stanišić EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Description:
“A brilliant debut novel” about a young Bosnian War refugee who finds the secret to survival in language and stories (Los Angeles Times). For Aleksandar Krsmanović, Grandpa Slavko’s stories endow life in Višegrad with a kaleidoscopic brilliance. Neighbors, friends, and family past and present take on a mythic quality; the River Drina courses through town like the pulse of life itself. So when his grandfather dies suddenly, Aleksandar promises to carry on the tradition. But then soldiers invade Višegrad—a town previously unconscious of racial and religious divides—and it’s no longer important t... continue

239.

Where You Come From by Saša Stanišić EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Description:
In August, 1992, a boy and his mother flee the war in Yugoslavia and arrive in Germany. Six months later, the boy’s father joins them, bringing a brown suitcase, insomnia, and a scar on his thigh. Saša Stanišic’s Where You Come From is a novel about this family, whose world is uprooted and remade by war: their history, their life before the conflict, and the years that followed their escape as they created a new life in a new country. Blending autofiction, fable, and choose-your-own-adventure, Where You Come From is set in a village where only thirteen people remain, in lost and made-up memori... continue

240.

Zlata's Diary : A Child's Life in Sarajevo by Zlata Filipović EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Description:
In a voice both innocent and wise, touchingly reminiscent of Anne Frank's, Zlata Filipovic's diary has awoken the conscience of the world. Now thirteen years old, Zlata began her diary just before her eleventh birthday, when there was peace in Sarajevo and her life was that of a bright, intelligent, carefree young girl. Her early entries describe her friends, her new skis, her family, her grades at school, her interest in joining the Madonna Fan Club. And then, on television, she sees the bombs falling on Dubrovnik. Though repelled by the sight, Zlata cannot conceive of the same thing happenin... continue