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 (2788)
551.

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert EN

Rating: 4 (11 votes)
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
Emma dreams of sophistication, wealth, and romance, but what she gets is a marriage to Charles Bovary, a provincial, middle-class doctor who is a devoted but boring husband. She tries her hardest to be a loyal and loving wife, even as she grows to resent him more and more for his insufferable dullness. Soon, though, she is seduced by the dashing Rodolphe and gives into her desires. In their affair, Emma believes she has finally found true, passionate love. She borrows money to lavish Rodolphe with expensive gifts, and the neighbors begin to gossip about her indiscretion. When the moneylender c... continue

552.

On the Line : Notes from a Factory by Joseph Ponthus EN

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
Joseph enlists with a temp agency and starts to pick up casual shifts in the fish processing plants and abattoirs of Brittany. A novel in verse that captures the mundane, the beautiful and the strange, in poignant contrast with the blood and sweat of the factory floor.
Genre

553.

Lie With Me : A Novel by Philippe Besson EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
The award-winning, bestselling French novel by Philippe Besson—“the French Brokeback Mountain” (Elle)—about an affair between two teenage boys in 1984 France, translated with subtle beauty and haunting lyricism by the iconic and internationally acclaimed actress/writer Molly Ringwald. We drive at high speed along back roads, through woods, vineyards, and oat fields. The bike smells like gasoline and makes a lot of noise, and sometimes I’m frightened when the wheels slip on the gravel on the dirt road, but the only thing that matters is that I’m holding on to him, that I’m holding on to him out... continue
Genre

554.

Le consentement by Vanessa Springora FR

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
À treize ans, dans un dîner, V. rencontre G., un écrivain. Omniprésent, passionné, G. parvient à la rassurer : il l'aime et ne lui fera aucun mal. Alors qu'elle vient d'avoir quatorze ans, V. s'offre à lui corps et âme. La désillusion est terrible quand V. comprend que G. collectionne depuis toujours les amours avec des adolescentes, et pratique le tourisme sexuel dans des pays où les mineurs sont vulnérables.

555.

The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas EN

Rating: 4 (3 votes)
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
Soon to be a major film from Amazon Studios, the prizewinning French bestseller "In this darkly delightful Gothic treasure, Mas explores grief, trauma, and sisterhood behind the walls of Paris's infamous Salpêtrière hospital." --Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train The Salpetriere Asylum: Paris, 1885. Dr. Charcot holds all of Paris in thrall with his displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad and cast out from society. But the truth is much more complicated--these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives, those who have lost somet... continue
Genre

556.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay EN

Rating: 5 (5 votes)
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from... continue

557.

The Girl Who Reads on the Métro by Christine Féret-Fleury EN

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
For fans of The Little Paris Bookshop and The Elegance of the Hedgehog, The Girl Who Reads on the Métro is the French phenomenon by Christine Féret-Fleury ready to charm book-lovers everywhere . . . When Juliette takes the métro to her loathed office job each morning, her only escape is in books - she avidly reads on her journey and imagines what her fellow commuters' choices might say about them. Then she meets Soliman - the mysterious owner of the most enchanting bookshop Juliette has ever seen - and things will never be the same again. For Soliman believes in the power of books to change th... continue
Genre

558.

La petite bijou by Patrick Modiano FR

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
" " Quand j'avais sept ans, on m'appelait la Petite Bijou. " Il a souri. Il trouvait certainement cela charmant et tendre pour une petite fille. Lui aussi, j'en étais sûre, sa maman lui avait donné un surnom qu'elle lui murmurait à l'oreille, le soir, avant de l'embrasser. Patoche. Pinky. Poulou. " Ce n'est pas ce que vous croyez, lui ai-je dit. Moi, c'était mon nom d'artiste. " "

559.

Existentialism is a Humanism by Jean-Paul Sartre FR

Rating: 5 (3 votes)
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
This book presents a new English translation of two seminal works by Jean-Paul Sartre, the most dominant European intellectual of the post-World War II decades. The volume includes Sartre's 1945 lecture “Existentialism Is a Humanism” and his analysis of Camus's The Stranger, along with a discussion of these works by acclaimed Sartre biographer Annie Cohen-Solal. This edition is a translation of the 1996 French edition, which includes Arlette Elkaïm-Sartre's introduction and a Q&A with Sartre about his lecture. In her foreword, intended for an American audience, acclaimed Sartre biographer Anni... continue

560.

In the Company of Men by Veronique Tadjo EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE Harper’s Bazaar: Best Book of the Year Boston Globe: Best Book of the Year Ms. Magazine: Best Feminist Book of the Year Words Without Borders: Best Translated Book of the Year Drawing on real accounts of the Ebola outbreak that devastated West Africa, this poignant, timely fable reflects on both the strength and the fragility of life and humanity’s place in the world. Two boys venture from their village to hunt in a nearby forest, where they shoot down bats with glee, and cook their prey over an open fire. Within a month, they are dead, bodies ravaged... continue