Read Around Europe Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Europe.
Best books from Europe (2781)
281.
Four Minutes by Nataliya Deleva EN
BulgariaDescription:
Giving voice to people living on the periphery in post-communist Bulgaria, Four Minutes centers around Leah, an orphan who suffered daily horrors growing up, and now struggles to integrate into society as a gay woman. She confronts her trauma by trying to volunteer at the orphanage, and to adopt a young girl--a choice that is frustrated over and over by bureaucracy and the pervasive stigma against gay women. In addition to Leah's narrative, the novel contains nine other standalone character studies of other frequently ignored voices. These sections are each meant to be read in approximately fo... continue
282.
Street Without A Name : Childhood And Other Misadventures In Bulgaria by Kapka Kassabova EN
Description:
Born in Sofia, Kapka Kassabova grew up under the last years of Cold War Communism in the 1980s, emigrated after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and has loved and hated her homeland in equal measure ever since. Thirty years later, as Bulgaria was joining the EU club, Kapka revisited the country of her childhood and her own relationship to it to discover just how much it - and she - had changed. With the irreverence of an expat, the curiosity of a visitor, and the soul of a poet, Kassabova brings to life the past and present of Bulgaria, as well as probing the complicated connection between place a... continue
283.
Las tempestálidas by Georgi Gospodinov ES
Description:
En su nueva obra, ganadora del Premio Strega, el autor de «Física de la tristeza» dibuja una reveladora distopía sobre la memoria y la identidad europeas.
El enigmático flâneur conocido como Gaustín inaugura en Zúrich una clínica para enfermos de alzhéimer. Sus instalaciones reproducen las distintas décadas del siglo XX al detalle, lo que permite a los pacientes regresar al escenario de sus años de plenitud. Pronto, un número creciente de ciudadanos perfectamente sanos solicita ingresar en la clínic... continue
284.
A Study of Household Spirits of Eastern Europe by Ronesa Aveela EN
Description:
Do you love all things paranormal? What you know about the spirit world is about to change as you discover these nine unusual household spirits. Author Ronesa Aveela grew up in Bulgaria, spellbound by her grandmother’s tales of spirits and other creatures that haunted the countryside. Some scary. Some friendly. All fascinating. She shares those and others in this series of studies about Eastern European mythology and folklore—a rich, colorful blend of Christian and pagan tales, customs, and rituals. Many have lost their original significance, but others are still practiced—especially in remote... continue
285.
You Can Smile on Wednesdays by Zdravka Evtimova EN
Description:
Zdravka Evtimova's novel You Can Smile on Wednesdays focuses on day-to-day lives of three sisters Luba, Sara and Pirina who live in the small Bulgarian town of Radomir. Pirina sings songs that have no tunes, but can ease loneliness and pain; Sara has numerous boyfriends. One of them builds a church for her in which loners go to pray and soon find love. Luba reads all the time, so much that she absents herself from real world, a fact that makes her attractive in some illogical yet convincing way. We never go in the same river twice -- the river does not follow the route that universe has mapped... continue
287.
Everything Happens as it Does by Albena Stambolova EN
Description:
Albena Stambolova's idiosyncratic debut novel, Everything Happens as it Does, builds from the idea that everything happens exactly the way it must. In this case, the seven characters of the novel each play a specific role in the lives of the others, binding them all together in a strange, yet logical, knot. As characters are picked up, explored and then swept aside, the novel's beguiling structure becomes apparent, forcing the reader to pay attention to the patterns created by this accumulation of events and relationships.
290.
Description:
Figuring explores the complexities of love and the human search for truth and meaning through the interconnected lives of several historical figures across four centuries—beginning with the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, and ending with the marine biologist and author Rachel Carson, who catalyzed the environmental movement. Stretching between these figures is a cast of artists, writers, and scientists—mostly women, mostly queer—whose public contribution have risen out of their unclassifiable and often heartbreaking private relationships to change the w... continue