Read Around Europe Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Europe.
Best books from Europe (2975)
781.
10 minutes et 38 secondes dans ce monde étrange by Elif Shafak FR
FranceDescription:
Et si notre esprit fonctionnait encore quelques instants après notre mort biologique ? 10 minutes et 38 secondes exactement. C'est ce qui arrive à Tequila Leila, prostituée brutalement assassinée dans une rue d'Istanbul. Du fond de la benne à ordures dans laquelle on l'a jetée, elle entreprend alors un voyage vertigineux au gré de ses souvenirs, d'Anatolie jusqu'aux quartiers les plus mal famés de la ville. En retraçant le parcours de cette jeune fille de bonne famille dont le destin a basculé, Elif Shafak nous raconte aussi l'histoire de nombre de femmes dans la Turquie d'aujourd'hui. A l'aff... continue
782.
Correr by Jean Echenoz ES
Description:
En los Juegos Interaliados de Berlín, en 1946, al ver detrás del cartel de Checoslovaquia a un solo atleta desmañado, todo el mundo se ríe. Pero después, cuando en los cinco mil metros acelera sin parar y cruza la meta en solitario, los espectadores estallan en un clamor. El nombre de ese chico que siempre sonríe: Emil Zátopek. En pocos años y dos Olimpiadas, Emil se convierte en invencible. Nadie puede pararlo: ni siquiera el régimen checoslovaco, que le espía, limita sus traslados y distorsiona sus declaraciones. Emil corre contra su decadencia, y sonríe. Incluso en las minas de uranio adond... continue
783.
Island of Shattered Dreams by Chantal T. Spitz EN
Description:
Island of Shattered Dreams is the first ever novel by an indigenous Tahitian writer. In a lyrical and immensely moving style, this book combines a family saga and a doomed love story, set against the background of French Polynesia in the period leading up to the first nuclear tests. The text is highly critical of the French government, and as a result its publication in Tahiti was polarising.
784.
Algeria Is Beautiful like America by Olivia Burton EN
Description:
Algeria the Beautiful explores the rich heritage and tumultuous modern history of Algeria and its connections to Europe and colonialism. Olivia had always heard stories about Algeria from her maternal grandmother, a Black Foot (a “Pied-Noir,” the French term for Christian and Jewish settlers of French Algeria who emigrated to France after the Algerian War of Independence). After her grandmother’s death, Olivia found some of her grandmother’s journals and letters describing her homeland. Now, ten years later, she resolves to travel to Algeria and experience the country for herself; she arrives ... continue
786.
All Men Want to Know by Nina Bouraoui EN
Description:
'Intense, gorgeous, troubling, seductive - a novel that has to be surrendered to rather than read' Sarah Waters AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER WINNER OF AN ENGLISH PEN TRANSLATES AWARD All Men Want to Know traces Nina Bouraoui's blissful childhood in Algeria, a wild, sun-soaked paradise, with hazy summer afternoons spent swimming, diving, and driving across the desert. Her mother is French, her father Algerian; when racial tensions begin to surface in their neighbourhood, her mother suffers an unspeakable act of violence that forces the family to flee the country. In Paris, eighteen-year-old Nina... continue
787.
The Suicide Shop by Jean Teulé EN
Description:
With the twenty-first century just a distant memory and the world in environmental chaos, many people have lost the will to live. Business is brisk at The Suicide Shop. Run by the Tuvache family, the shop offers a variety of ways to end it all, with something to fit every budget. The Tuvaches go mournfully about their business until the youngest member of the family threatens to destroy their contented misery by confronting them with something they've never encountered before: a love of life. Jean Teulé lives in the Marais with his companion, the French film actress Miou-Miou.
788.
The Last Day of a Condemned Man by Victor Hugo EN
Description:
Deeply shocking in its time, "The Last Day of a Condemned Man" is a profound and moving tale and a vital work of social commentary. A man vilified by society and condemned to death for his crime wakes every morning knowing that this day might be his last. With the hope for release his only comfort, he spends his hours recounting his life and the time before his imprisonment. But as the hours pass, he knows that he is powerless to change his fate. He must follow the path so many have trod before him--the path that leads to the guillotine.
789.
Iphigenia : (The Diary of a Young Lady who Wrote Because She was Bored) by Teresa de la Parra EN
Description:
The story of Maria Eugenia Alonso, a girl brought up in France and forced to return to Venezuela when her father dies. Having had her inheritance stolen by an uncle, the family puts her up for marriage. Written in 1924.
790.
L'étrangère by Valérie Toranian FR
Description:
"Elle tricote. Je sors mon carnet. - Raconte-moi précisément ce qui s'est passé dans les convois... - Plus tard... Je rêve de recueillir cette histoire qui est aussi la mienne et elle s'y oppose comme une gamine butée. - Quand plus tard ? - Quand tu auras eu ton bébé". Aravni garde farouchement le silence sur son passé. Sa petite-fille, Valérie, aimerait pourtant qu'elle lui raconte son histoire, l'Arménie, Alep, Constantinople et Marseille. Dans ce récit qui traverse le siècle, elle écrit le roman de la vie, ou plutôt des vies d'Aravni : de la toute jeune fille fuyant le génocide arménien en ... continue