Read Around Europe Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Europe.
Best books from Europe (2781)
261.
Before the Feast by Saša Stanišić EN
Country: Europe / 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
Someone has opened the doors to the Village Archive, but what drives the sleepless out of their houses is not that which was stolen, but that which has escaped. Old stories, myths, and fairy tales are wandering about the streets with the people. They come together in a novel about a long night, a mosaic of village life, in which the long-established and newcomers, the dead and the living, craftsmen, pensioners, and noble robbers in football shirts bump into each other. They all want to bring something to a close, in this night before the feast.
262.
Byron and the Beauty by Muharem Bazdulj EN
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
Byron and the Beauty is very loosely based on Byron's biography and takes place during two weeks of October, 1809, during his visit to the Balkans. Muharem Bazdulj marvelously combines facts with imagination, history, and romance, resulting in an exceptionally beautiful novel. Lord Byron ends up experiencing and embodying the lyrical Balkan condition of unrequited love called sevdah, but his valiant behavior also lands him in a regional folk song; this nod to changing cultural production in the Ottoman lands calls to mind the works of Ismail Kadare. From coffee to customary law, from courtship... continue
263.
Radio Sarajevo by Tijan Sila DE
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
„Eine Jugend zwischen Blauhelmen und Bon Jovi. Tijan Sila erzählt rau, verletzlich, unverstellt.“ (Micky Beisenherz) Brutal ehrlich beschreibt er das Leben und Überleben im belagerten Sarajevo. „Dies ist die Geschichte meiner Kindheit und meines Kriegs.“ Als im April 1992 der Krieg beginnt, ist Tijan Sila nur zehn Jahre alt, doch bis heute kann er sich an den Geruch von gezündetem Sprengstoff erinnern. Während Sarajevo in Flammen steht, wird aus dem Jungen, der er damals war, ein junger Mann. Er streift durch die Ruinen der ausgebombten Stadt und sammelt Dinge, die von den Geflohenen und Gesto... continue
264.
Bosnian Chronicle : A Novel by Ivo Andric EN
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
Set in the town of Travnik, Bosnian Chronicle presents the struggle for supremacy in a region that stubbornly refuses to submit to any outsider. The era is Napoleonic and the novel, both in its historical scope and psychological subtlety, Tolstoyan. In its portrayal of conflict and fierce ethnic loyalties, the story is also eerily relevant. Ottoman viziers, French consuls, and Austrian plenipotentiaries are consumed by an endless game of diplomacy and double-dealing: expansive and courtly face-to-face, brooding and scheming behind closed doors. As they have for centuries, the Bosnians themselv... continue
265.
Under the Yoke by Ivan Vazov EN
BulgariaDescription:
Under the Yoke is a novel by Ivan Vazov written in 1888. It depicts the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria and is the most famous piece of classic Bulgarian literature. The tranquillity in a Bulgarian village under Ottoman rule is only superficial: the people are quietly preparing for an uprising. The plot follows the story of Boicho Ognyanov, who, having escaped from a prison in Diarbekir, returns to the Bulgarian town of Byala Cherkva to take part in the rebellion. There he meets old friends, enemies, and the love of his life. The plot portrays the personal drama of the characters, their emotions, mot... continue
266.
Description:
Published in 1986, three years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Wolf Hunt was the first novel to portray the human cost of Communist policies on Bulgarian villagers, forced by the government to abandon their land and traditional way of life. Darkly comic and tragic, the novel centers on an ill-fated winter hunting expedition of six neighbors whose history together is long and interwoven. The ensuing story takes the reader on a voyage of shifting perspectives that places the calamitous history of twentieth-century Bulgaria into a human context of helplessness and desperation.
267.
Geography for the lost by Kapka kassabova EN
Description:
The voices speaking here - from a Roman housewife to a Chinese bar-owner in Berlin or an Argentine DJ - are the voices of the heart-sick, the culturally jet-lagged, people from photographs, the 'tenants' of lives, cities, and destinies.
268.
The Physics of Sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov EN
Description:
Using the myth of the Minotaur as its organising image, the narrator of Gospodinov's long-awaited novel constructs a labyrinth of stories about his family, jumping from era to era and viewpoint to viewpoint, exploring the mind-set and trappings of Eastern Europeans. Shortlisted for prizes around the world, Georgi Gospodinov's thrilling new novel will appeal to fans of Dave Eggers, Tom McCarthy and Dubravka Ugresic for its unique structure, humanitarian concerns and stunning storytelling.
269.
East of the West : A Country in Stories by Miroslav Penkov EN
Description:
Collects stories inspired by the author's native Bulgaria, including the tales of a grandson who tries to buy Lenin's corpse on eBay for his grandfather and a boy who meets a cousin every five years on the river that divides their village.
270.
The Voices of Marrakesh by Elias Canetti, James Amery Underwood EN
Description:
Marrakesh through the eyes and ears of one of Europe's major writers.