Recently I saw a good books suggestion list. But one of the comments got my attention. It said: "It's focused only on European and American literature, but there are no authors from Asia, Africa, Latin America or Australia."
So I am asking you to suggest me some good books that are not from European and American literature. Books by writers from Asia, Africa, Latin America or Australia..
Thanks.
by cavansir
4 Comments
Hi! What genre do you prefer?
Africa
– Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
– Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
– Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (one of the best living writers in the world IMO)
– My Sister The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
– Born A Crime by Trevor Noah
Asia
– Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
– The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (this novel splits between China and San Francisco, but it’s an incredibly powerful multigenerational tale about womanhood and storytelling)
– Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
– The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Latin America
– Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
– Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia (I adore this book and feel like it doesn’t get enough love)
One of my favorite books is called Thirteen Cents, it’s by a South African author named K Sello Duiker.
If you like philosophy or poetry, my favorite writer of all time is Édouard Glissant, a writer from Martinique in the Caribbean. My favorite book by him is Sun of Consciousness.
If you like poetry, White Egrets by Derek Walcott is my go-to. His writing has a sense of grandiosity akin to the ancient greeks if that makes sense.
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih is also a phenomenal novel from Sudan, one that is not easily put down.
Human Acts by Han Kang is a gorgeously written but very brutal Korean historical fiction novel, also one of my favorites.
K-Ming Chang is a fantastic contemporary writer and she’s actually really young, mid 20’s, which I think is super cool. I haven’t gotten a chance to read her novels yet but her book of short stories Gods of Want was one of the best things I read last year.
And for Latin American literature, Roberto Bolaño is awesome. I’m partial to Borges as well, there’s a great collection of his short stories curated by his widow called On Mysticism. Bolaño is good to read if you want to be inspired to start a revolution and Borges is good for when nothing feels real.
Literature from around the world is always more enjoyable when one regards the context from which it’s born, and I highly recommend reading a little bit about the political state of the region before embarking, or getting an annotated copy. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did, which is to say, immensely 🙂
Australia – “Everyone in my family has killed somone” and “Everyone in this train is a suspect” by Benjamin Stevenson. These are locked room murder mystery