Iran

Iranian riches, rags, and carpets
Two debut novels set 300 years apart feature the plight of fatherless families in patriarchal Iran
from the July 17, 2007 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0717/p13s01-bogn.html
By Yvonne Zipp

What do you do if your dad disappears? That question takes on even greater significance in a patriarchal society and it's the one confronted by two Iranian girls living 300 years apart. In The Septembers of Shiraz set in 1981 Iran, Shirin Amin's father is grabbed at work by the Revolutionary Guards for the double crime of having lived well under the shah and for being Jewish. The unnamed heroine of The Blood of Flowers loses her father to a farming accident, but the results cause just as much upheaval – if less emotional devastation.

Both The Septembers of Shiraz and The Blood of Flowers are first novels by talented Iranian-born writers now living in the United States, and both seem primed to enjoy the success among book clubs that helped turn The Kite Runner into a runaway bestseller. But The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer is the more gripping work, perhaps because it is tied to real-life events that continue to echo in world politics today. Sofer fled Iran in 1982 at age 10, and the level of detail with which she crafts her story about a family under duress makes it seem likely that some of the events have been drawn from life.

While Isaac Amin, the jailed father, tries to persuade his interrogator that he is just a gemologist and not a Zionist spy, his wife, Farnaz, struggles to navigate her new world. As the days pass, the beautiful former journalist can hardly get out of bed. Their daughter, Shirin, deep in her own depression, is reminded of a lesson her father once shared with her on ghazals, an Arabic poetic form. " 'There is no end.... That's the first thing you should learn about ghazals. There is no resolution. Imagine the speaker simply throwing his hands in the air.' Maybe in life, as in a ghazal, there is no resolution. She finds relief in the idea of throwing her arms in the air. Maybe there are no solutions, nothing to be done." Farnaz's inertia is no doubt realistic, but it can make for frustrating reading, as can her son Parviz's self-pity, as the architecture student tries to define himself without access to his father's money.

Isaac is the real heart of the novel. The man who made shadow puppets by candlelight so his daughter wouldn't be frightened by the Iraqi bombs falling overhead, uses memories of his family and a life of reading poetry to sustain him as he and his fellow prisoners are tortured and executed. Shirin, meanwhile, finds secret surveillance files in a friend's basement, and steals several, hoping it means the Revolutionary Guards will lose the scent of a few people.

Sofer paints a complicated picture of postrevolutionary Iran: The Amins (and especially their relatives) aren't entirely innocent, having shut their eyes to brutality and corruption under the shah, but Sofer recoils from the idea of justice by "collective retribution" voiced by Farnaz's formerly docile housekeeper. While the dialogue can feel overly formal at times, the impression the reader is left with at the end is that of a powerful story honestly told.

The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani, with its interwoven fairy tales, feminist-ready plotline, and rich cultural detail, is, in many ways, an easier sell. After her father dies, the girl and her mother travel to Isfahan to live with her dad's half-brother, a rug designer favored by the shah. After surveying the riches in her uncle's house, the girl measures true wealth by the courtyard. "It had a pool of water shaded by two poplars. I thought of the single tree in my village, a large cypress. For one family to have its own shade and greenery seemed to me the greatest of luxuries."

While her aunt never misses a chance to treat them like servants, her uncle is kind to the girl and teaches her the finer points of design and color. His kindness, however, doesn't extend to providing her with a dowry. Unable to marry, she is persuaded to become the legal mistress of a wealthy horse trader. Under the contract, called a sigheh, which is renewable, the two are considered married for three months at a time – a nice bit of sophistry that still exists today.

Unhappy with her tenuous existence, the girl makes plans to use her artistic talents to build a real life for herself and her mother. While the writing sometimes takes on an unmistakably purple tint, that's offset by the evocation of life in 17th-century Isfahan.

Amirrezvani includes traditional folk tales that the mother tells her daughter to take their minds off their troubles and engrossing descriptions about the art of rugmaking and those works' centrality to Iranian culture. Her uncle likes to lecture the narrator about integrity of design and the importance of beauty amid cruelty and injustice, but the woman who runs the public baths sums it up best: " 'Often we must live with imperfection,' she said. 'And when people worry about a stain on their floor, what do they do?' 'They throw a carpet over it,' I replied. 'From Shiraz to Tabriz, from Baghdad to Heart, that is what Iranians do.' "

• Yvonne Zipp regularly reviews fiction for the Monitor.
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Jill said, "Just want to second the nod toward The Blood of Flowers. It was an excellent look into 16th Century Persia. Here's my review."

Canada

Jill said, "I also enjoyed Atwood's The Blind Assassin, which is also set in Canada. You can find my review here."

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.

Canada

Wendy said, "Margaret Atwood is a renowned Canadian author. Her book Alias Grace is a fabulous read that fictionalizes a true life crime case in Canada. You can find my review for this book here."

Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer, Thomas Kinnear, and Nancy Montgomery, his housekeeper and mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence, Grace claims to have no memory of the murders.

Dr. Simon Jordan, an up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness, is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories? Is Grace a female fiend? A bloodthirsty femme fatale? Or is she the victim of circumstances?
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Jill said, "I just finished Alias Grace and enjoyed it. Here is my review."

Morocco

Wendy said, "Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir fits the bill for a compelling Moroccan read. It is a memoir ... my review can be found here.

Stolen Lives is a gripping memoir that reads like a political thriller -- the story of Malika Oufkir's turbulent and remarkable life. Born in 1953, Malika Oufkir was the eldest daughter of General Oufkir, the King of Morocco's closest aide. Adopted by the king at the age of five, Malika spent most of her childhood and adolescence in the seclusion of the court harem, one of the most eligible heiresses in the kingdom, surrounded by luxury and extraordinary privilege.

On August 15th, 1972, she was probably the most privileged teenager in all Morocco, having been raised in the opulent seclusion of the monarch's harem. But within 24 hours, her father would be tried and summarily executed for treason, and she and her entire family would be arrested and imprisoned in a remote desert penal colony. For the next 20 years, her accommodations would only grow worse. Malika Oufkir's memories of her 20-year incarceration, most of it in vermin-infested solitary confinement, rivets your attention and educates your senses.

France

Wendy said, "Set in France during the Nazi invasion, Suite Francaise was left unfinished by its famous author Irene Nemirovsky. When the manuscript was discovered, it was published along with Nemirovsky's detailed notes for the novel which was to be an epic of more than 1000 pages. A touching and important part of history, it is a good read for France. My review is here.

Suite Francaise is an extraordinary novel of life under Nazi occupation -- recently discovered and published 64 years after the author's death in Auschwitz. In the early 1940s, Irène Némirovsky was a successful writer living in Paris. But she was also Jewish, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz. Her two small daughters, aged 5 and 13, escaped, carrying with them, in a small suitcase, the manuscript -- one of the great first-hand fictional accounts of a way of life unraveling.

Part One, "A Storm in June," is set in the chaos of the tumultuous exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion. As the German army approaches, Parisians seize what belongings they can and flee the city, the wealthy and the poor alike searching for means to escape. Thrown together under circumstances beyond their control, a group of families and individuals with nothing in common but the harsh demands of survival find themselves facing the annihilation of their world, and human nature is revealed for what it is -- sometimes tender, sometimes terrifying.

Part Two, "Dolce," is set in a German-occupied village near Paris, where, riven by jealousy and resentment, resistance and collaboration, the lives of the townspeople reveal nothing less than the essence of the French identity. The delicate, secret love affair between a German soldier and the French woman in whose house he has been billeted plays out dangerously against the background of Occupation.

Russia

Wendy said, "Debra Dean's debut novel The Madonnas of Leningrad is a moving story of an elderly woman caught in the debilitating disease of Alzheimers. As she sinks further into her illness, she begins to remember her years working at the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad, including the Nazi siege of Leningrad. A wonderful book for Russia...here is my review."

Bit by bit, the ravages of age are eroding Marina's grip on the everyday. An elderly Russian woman now living in America, she cannot hold on to fresh memories—the details of her grown children's lives, the approaching wedding of her grandchild—yet her distant past is miraculously preserved in her mind's eye.

Vivid images of her youth in war-torn Leningrad arise unbidden, carrying her back to the terrible fall of 1941, when she was a tour guide at the Hermitage Museum and the German army's approach signaled the beginning of what would be a long, torturous siege on the city. As the people braved starvation, bitter cold, and a relentless German onslaught, Marina joined other staff members in removing the museum's priceless masterpieces for safekeeping, leaving the frames hanging empty on the walls to symbolize the artworks' eventual return. As the Luftwaffe's bombs pounded the proud, stricken city, Marina built a personal Hermitage in her mind—a refuge that would stay buried deep within her, until she needed it once more.

I also thought the book was excellent. Click here to read Bonnie's review of the book.

England

Wendy said, "My last one for today (promise!). Black Swan Green captures one year in the life of a British 13 year old boy. Mitchell's prose is brilliant. I can highly recommend this one for a Great Britain read. Here is my review."

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell re-creates the parallel universe inhabited by a 13-year-old English boy in 1982. It's a world of superstition, misinformation, obsession with social status, the mystery of girls, popular songs, school, his family's increasing dysfunction, and dimly understood political upheaval. Mostly though, Jason Taylor struggles with his stammer, and bullies.

Turkey

Wendy said, "I just finished Birds Without Wings, by Louis De Bernieres. It is a good read for Turkey. You can read my review here. I am planning a project to READ THE WORLD. You can find all my posts for this personal challenge here."

Birds Without Wings by Louis De Bernieres traces the fortunes of one small community in southwest Turkey (Anatolia) in the early part of the last century -- a quirky community in which Christian and Muslim lives and traditions have co-existed peacefully over the centuries and where friendship, even love, has transcended religious differences.

But with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the onset of the Great War, the sweep of history has a cataclysmic effect on this peaceful place: the great love of Philothei, a Christian girl of legendary beauty, and Ibrahim, a Muslim shepherd who courts her from near infancy, culminates in tragedy and madness; two inseparable childhood friends who grow up playing in the hills above the town suddenly find themselves on opposite sides of the bloody struggle; and Rustem Bey, a wealthy landlord, has an enchanting mistress who is not what she seems.

Far away from these small lives, a man of destiny who will come to be known as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is emerging to create a country from the ruins of an empire. Victory at Gallipoli fails to save the Ottomans from ultimate defeat and, as a new conflict arises, Muslims and Christians struggle to survive, let alone understand, their part in the great tragedy that will reshape the whole region forever.

Thanks, Wendy, this looks good! I hope you will continue to share ideas with us "over here" as you read the world in your personal challenge. Maybe we'll even have an idea or two that you can use.

Scotland

Sammar, a Sudanese widow who has left her child in the care of her aunt and moved to Scotland to become an Arabic translator, narrates The Translator by Leila Aboulela, a poetic novel of love and faith. Wendy said, "The Translator transports the reader to another culture, offering glimpses into what it means to have faith and how difficult it is to abide by one's beliefs. It is not a complicated novel; but it left me contemplating the larger issues of life." Click to read Wendy's review of the book.

Nigeria

Sally906 said, "I have posted this link on my personal 'Around the World in 80 books challenge.' You have so many great suggestions :) Can I suggest: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria). Also Purple Hibiscus by the same author.

Fifteen-year-old Kambili's world is circumscribed by the high walls and frangipani trees of her family compound. Her wealthy Catholic father, under whose shadow Kambili lives, while generous and politically active in the community, is repressive and fanatically religious at home. When Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili's father sends her and her brother away to stay with their aunt, a University professor, whose house is noisy and full of laughter. There, Kambili and her brother discover a life and love beyond the confines of their father's authority. The visit will lift the silence from their world and, in time, give rise to devotion and defiance that reveal themselves in profound and unexpected ways.

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a book about the promise of freedom and about the blurred lines between childhood and adulthood, between love and hatred, between the old gods and the new. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has already been suggested. I'm glad to know you like it, too.

Russia

Jill said, "Me again! I just finished The Archivist's Story by Travis Holland - a new book that follows a Soviet archivist who tries to protect works of literature from permanent destruction during the time of Stalin's Great Purge. A review is posted on my blog, if you're interested. I am not a Russian scholar, so I have no idea if this is a great representative of the literature of Russia or the former Soviet Union. However, for my personal list, I am counting it for Russia for this challenge."

Moscow, 1939. In the recesses of the infamous Lubyanka prison, a young archivist is sent to authenticate an unsigned story confiscated from one of the many political prisoners there. The writer is Isaac Babel. The great author of Red Cavalry is spending his last days forbidden to write, his final manuscripts consigned to the archivist, Pavel Dubrov, who will ultimately be charged with destroying them. The emotional jolt of meeting Babel face-to-face leads to a reckless decision: he will save the last stories of the author he reveres, whatever the cost.

From the margins of history, Travis Holland has woven a tale of the greatest power. Pavel’s private act of courage in the face of a vast bureaucracy of evil invigorates a life that had lost its meaning, even as it guarantees his almost certain undoing. A story of suspense, courage, and unexpected avenues of grace, The Archivist’s Story is ultimately an enduring tribute to the written word.

India

Juliette said, "For India, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts is a powerful, dynamic and fast moving work of fiction based upon a true life experience. Like many of the books we will come up with it reflects the country in a variety of lights."

A young Australian man bearing a false New Zealand passport gives his name as "Lindsay" and flies to Bombay some time in the early '80s. On his first day there, Lindsay meets the two people who will largely influence his fate in the city. One is a young tour guide, Prabaker, whose gifts include a large smile and an unstoppably joyful heart. Through Prabaker, Lindsay gets to know village India and settles, for a time, in a vast shantytown, operating an illicit free clinic. The second person he meets is Karla, a beautiful Swiss-American woman with sea-green eyes and a circle of expatriate friends. Lin's love for Karla — and her mysterious inability to love in return — gives the book its central tension.

But 944 pages!? Wow, this is a REAL chunkster!

Australia

Historia said, "Banjo Patterson - poems from Australia. His long poem 'Man from Snowy River' is considered the BEST, and it surely does represent the Australian Outback. Could also be read for books to movies as well. Alice Springs by Nevil Shute is another good book."

Banjo Paterson (Complete Poems) is one of Australia's best-loved poets and his verse is among Australia's enduring traditions. This complete collection of verse shows the bush balladeer at his very best with favorites such as "A Bush Christening," "The Man from Ironbark," "Clancy of the Overflow," and the immortal "The Man from Snowy River." A. B. (Banjo) Paterson was born in Australia in 1864 and wrote poetry and fiction from 1900 until his death in 1941.

A Town Like Alice tells of a young woman who miraculously survived a Japanese "death march" in World War II, and of an Australian soldier, also a prisoner of war, who offered to help her — even at the cost of his life. When an old Scottish man dies, his sole heir is a young woman named Jean Paget, who is soon off to Malaya to repay the village where she stayed during WWII by digging a well. The story, based on real life, is about how she and other women were held prisoner by the Japanese, but eventually found refuge in a small village. They had encountered Joe Harmon, a young Australian, who was crucified for stealing food for them. When Paget returns to Malaya, she learns that Harmon had survived and returned to Australia, where eventually meet up. Jean, determined to make her home in Harmon's area, sets out to make the godforsaken town into "A Town Like Alice" (Alice Springs).

Canada

Bonnie said, "I really enjoyed reading Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark, a book about the eastern seaboard of Canada. Here's my review of the book, if you want to read it."

In the year 1912, a baby girl is found adrift on an ice floe in the North Atlantic. She is rescued by a fisherman and brought up on the austere Newfoundland coast. Aurora is an unusual little girl who grows up, marries a lighthouse keeper, and has two children: Nancy, who is headstrong and wants to be everything her mother isn't, and Stanley, who becomes an expert on icebergs. Nancy's daughter, Sheila, is the one who wants to find out about her grandmother Aurora's mysterious past and why she was on the ice in 1912 ... shortly after the sinking of the Titanic.

Afghanistan

Juliette said, "I too am really tempted, partly because I am reading Bookseller of Kabul and have others lined up that would fit in! Seriously, I think this is an excellent idea to encourage broader world wide reading."

With The Bookseller of Kabul, award-winning journalist Asne Seierstad has given readers a first-hand look at Afghani life as few outsiders have seen it. Invited to live with Sultan Khan, a bookseller in Kabul, and his family for months, this account of her experience allows the Khans to speak for themselves, giving us a genuinely gripping and moving portrait of a family, and of a country of great cultural riches and extreme contradictions.

For more than 20 years, Sultan Khan has defied the authorities—whether Communist or Taliban—to supply books to the people of Kabul. He has been arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned, and has watched illiterate Taliban soldiers burn piles of his books in the street. Yet he had persisted in his passion for books, shedding light in one of the world's darkest places.

This is the intimate portrait of a man of principle and of his family—two wives, five children, and many relatives sharing a small four-room house in this war ravaged city. But more than that, it is a rare look at contemporary life under Islam, where even after the Taliban's collapse, the women must submit to arranged marriages, polygamous husbands, and crippling limitations on their ability to travel, learn and communicate with others.

Japan

Gracie said, "I've spent about a third of my life (20 years) outside the US. I'd like to recommend some books from the places I had the great good fortune to live ... JAPAN: Momotaro, the Peach Pit Boy (possibly my first book)."

Unfortunately, I can't find a book about this, but here's the short story as I found it online:

Momotaro, the Peach Boy is the story of an old man and an old woman who never have been able to have a child. They are lonely. While she washes her clothes, the woman is very surprised by the appearance of a huge peach floating down the stream. She brings the peach home and opens it, only to find a small boy nestled inside. "I'm hungry!" he says, and eats up first one half of the peach and then the other half.

He grows up to be a fine young man and one day takes his flute to the Ogre's island. He teams up with a monkey, a dog, and a pheasant, and together they put the Ogre in his place. With a song played by Momotaro on the flute, the Ogre is tamed, and Momotaro, the monkey, the dog, and the pheasant are able to convince the Ogre to come back to the village and return all the treasures he has stolen.

England

Gracie said, "ENGLAND: Waterland, by Graham Swift (about the Fens)."

Graham Swift's Waterland relates Tom Crick's attempt to reclaim his life, or, in his words, "to make things not seem meaningless" (p. 241). Tom, a history teacher, believes that "History begins only at the point where things go wrong" (p. 106). The novel begins when Tom is fired and his life falls apart. Not only is he being fired, but his entire department is being cut. The novel tackles the question, Why study history if it is all coming to an end? History is necessary because of our curiosity and the need to know. Our desire to know means that we must look at history, and all of its mistakes, and take heed.

Set in the bleak Fen Country of East Anglia, and spanning some 240 years in the lives of its haunted narrator and his ancestors, Waterland is a book that takes in eels and incest, ale-making and madness, the heartless sweep of history and a family romance as tormented as any in Greek tragedy.

Germany

Gracie said, "GERMANY: Ursula Hegi's Stones from the River."

Stones from the River is a daring, dramatic and complex novel of life in Germany. It is set in Burgdorf, a small fictional German town, between 1915 and 1951. The protagonist is Trudi Montag, a Zwerg -- the German word for dwarf woman. As a dwarf she is set apart, the outsider whose physical "otherness" has a corollary in her refusal to be a part of Burgdorf's silent complicity during and after World War II. Trudi establishes her status and power, not through beauty, marriage, or motherhood, but rather as the town's librarian and relentless collector of stories.

Through Trudi's unblinking eyes, we witness the growing impact of Nazism on the ordinary townsfolk of Burgdorf as they are thrust on to a larger moral stage and forced to make choices that will forever mark their lives. Stones from the River is a story of secrets, parceled out masterfully by Trudi -- and by Ursula Hegi -- as they reveal the truth about living through unspeakable times.

Turkey

Gracie said, "TURKEY: The Tales of Khodja (you'll find it spelled in many ways - but the Hodja is a wonderful character from Turkish lore) AND Rise the Euphrates by Carol Edgarian (a wonderful book about a terrible, terrible time)."

Tales of Nasreddin Khoja: 181 Mulla Nasreddin Stories was translated from the Turkish by Henry D. Barnham. Here is a collection of 181 of the funniest and best-known Mulla Nasreddin stories. Mulla Nasreddin, as he is known in the Persian-speaking world, is a humorous witty character that goes by different names in different cultures. Iranians, Arabs, and Turks still bicker about who he was and where he was from. What can be said is that Mulla is a universal character on which are framed various humorous, philosophical, moral, or pedagogic anecdotes. A Mulla Nasreddin anecdote is often used to emphasize a point. Most read a funny story. However, in the same tale, a Sufi may see multiple strands of mystic meaning and a revolutionary will see the idea of resistance to authority. Depending on the reader and the time, Nasreddin may be more of a wise man, a jester, a rebel, or a philosopher.

Rise the Euphrates vividly brings to life a historic tragedy - the world's first modern genocide - and illuminates the archetypal pattern in which the first generation denies, the second generation forgets and the third generation rediscovers the event. At the heart of the story is a moment of survival when a young girl narrowly escapes a holocaust - the 1915 Turkish massacre of over one million Armenian men, women and children. In the diaspora that follows, the girl comes to America bearing a legacy of trauma that her granddaughter Seta will be left to explain. Seta is the chosen one, the one upon whom the generations pin their hope and despair. Rise the Euphrates vividly brings to life a historic tragedy - the world's first modern genocide - and illuminates the archetypal pattern in which the first generation denies, the second generation forgets and the third generation rediscovers the event. You can read an excerpt here.

Turkey

Raidergirl3 said, "Excellent idea. I've been doing this as well; some good books I've liked include ... Turkey: Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk (nonfiction/memoir)."

Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature, returns to his home city in Istanbul: Memories and the City, where he reflects on Istanbul's unique role as a gateway to both the East and the West. This portrait of one of the world's great cities by its foremost literary resident mixes urban and personal history, sociology, and legend to render a portrait of Istanbul that is full of cultural contradictions. Pamuk sees the slow collapse of the once powerful Ottoman Empire hanging like a pall over the city and its citizens. In the last pages, Pamuk turns from art and architecture to writing, making this also a book about vocation.

Portugal

Raidergirl3 said, "Portugal: Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali."

Alentejo Blue is a stunning work of episodic fiction, vignettes in which Ali introduces us to a new culture. She gives us the claustrophobic little village of Mamarrosa in the rural Alentejo region of Portugal, which is inhabited by a small group of people whose lives are steeped in unshakable sadness and linked by the accident of place. There, cork prices are falling, the region is still healing after the brutal Salazar regime, and the locals don't quite care to cater to tourists. Ali's characters wait and hope for change but cannot bring themselves to exert any efforts on their own behalf. Instead, they pin their hopes on the return of Marco Afonso Rodrigues, who earned a fortune abroad and is coming back to Mamarrosa for his own mysterious purposes. Library Journal says: "Overall, the novel compares favorably with Carson McCullers's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter as a study of collective despair and frustrated hopes."
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UPDATE: Wendy said, "I just finished this one today and really loved it. My review can be found here."

Sri Lanka

Raidergirl3 said, "Sri Lanka: Reef by Rumesh Gunesekera."

Reef, Rumesh Gunesekera's first novel, is the story of Triton, a talented young chef so committed to pleasing his master's palate that he is oblivious to the political unrest threatening his Sri Lankan paradise. It is a personal story that parallels the larger movement of a country from a hopeful, young democracy to troubled island society. Reef explores the entwined lives of Mr. Salgado, an aristocratic marine biologist and student of sea movements and the disappearing reef, and his houseboy, Triton, who learns to polish silver until it shines like molten sun; to mix a love cake with ten eggs, creamed butter, and fresh cadju nuts; to marinade tiger prawns; and to steam parrot fish. Through these characters and the forty years of political disintegration their country endures, Gunesekera tells the tragic, sometimes comic, story of a lost paradise and a young man coming to terms with his destiny.

New Zealand

Raidergirl3 said, "New Zealand: The Bone People by Keri Hulme. Here's the link to my lists, some completed, some future ideas http://raidergirl3.blogspot.com/

Integrating both Maori myth and New Zealand reality, The Bone People became the most successful novel in New Zealand publishing history when it appeared in 1984. Set on the South Island beaches of New Zealand, a harsh environment, the novel chronicles the complicated relationships between three emotional outcasts of mixed European and Maori heritage. Kerewin Holmes is a painter and a loner, convinced that "to care for anything is to invite disaster." Her isolation is disrupted one day when a six-year-old mute boy, Simon, breaks into her house. The sole survivor of a mysterious shipwreck, Simon has been adopted by a widower Maori factory worker, Joe Gillayley, who is both tender and horribly brutal toward the boy. Through shifting points of view, the novel reveals each character's thoughts and feelings as they struggle with the desire to connect and the fear of attachment. The Bone People, winner of the 1985 Booker-McConnell prize for fiction, captures the soul of New Zealand.
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Amy has also read The Bone People.  Click this link to read her review of the book.

Germany

Jill said, "You are really tempting me now. =) I have some suggestions: (1) The Book Thief (Zusak) - Germany."

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel The Book Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist –- books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

Afghanistan

Jill said, "I have some suggestions ... (2) The Kite Runner (Hosseini)- Afghanistan."

Amir and Hassan are childhood friends in the alleys and orchards of Kabul in the sunny days before the invasion of the Soviet army and Afghanistan’s decent into fanaticism. Both motherless, they grow up as close as brothers, but their fates, they know, are to be different. Amir’s father is a wealthy merchant; Hassan’s father is his manservant. When the Soviets invade Afghanistan, Amir and his father flee to San Francisco, leaving Hassan and his father to a pitiless fate. Those are the bare bones of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, but the story hinges on one character's need for redemption.
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UPDATE (6-14-08): Wendy said, "I just finished reading The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. It is an impressive first novel which reveals the horror of what has happened, and continues to happen in Afganistan. My review can be found here."

Bonnie: "Continues to happen" is such an apt phrase, coming as it does one day after the violence in Afghanistan that occurred during an escape from Sarposa Prison in Kandahar province, the Taliban's former stronghold. An Associated Press article says:

... dozens of militants on motorbikes attacked the facility late Friday. Seven police and several prisoners died in the assault ... One suicide bomber detonated a tanker truck full of explosives at the prison gate while a second bomber blasted another escape route through a back wall. Rockets fired from inside the prison's courtyard collapsed an upper floor. The police chief of Kandahar province, Sayed Agha Saqib, said 390 Taliban prisoners were among the 870 inmates who escaped.

Australia

Jill said, "I have some suggestions ... (3) I am the Messenger (Zusak) - Australia."

Meet Ed Kennedy — underage cabdriver, pathetic cardplayer, and useless at romance. He lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog, the Doorman, and he’s hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That’s when the first Ace arrives. That’s when Ed becomes the messenger. Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary), until only one question remains: Who’s behind Ed’s mission? Winner of the 2003 Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Award in Australia, I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak is a cryptic journey filled with laughter, fists, and love.

Spain

Jill said, "I have some suggestions ... (4) The Shadow of the Wind (Zafon) - Spain. I'll probably think of more, but I feel these represent their counties - at best or worst."

Barcelona, 1945 — A great world city lies shrouded in secrets after the war, and a 10-year-old boy mourning the loss of his mother finds solace in his love for an extraordinary book called The Shadow of the Wind, by an author named Julian Carax. When the boy searches for Carax's other books, it begins to dawn on him, to his horror, that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book the man has ever written. Soon the boy realizes that The Shadow of the Wind is as dangerous to own as it is impossible to forget, for the mystery of its author's identity holds the key to an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love that someone will go to any lengths to keep secret.

And now WE have The Shadow of the Wind, but this one is by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Thanks, Jill.

Nigeria

Have you ever heard of Biafra? It was a country, though it didn't last long. Biafra was formerly part of Nigeria, and now it is again. That's why I label this post Nigeria. Nigeria itself hasn't been around very long, having gained its independence in 1960. Chimamanda Adichie's novel Half of a Yellow Sun tells the story of Biafra, a tiny country whose flag showed half of a yellow sun, as you can see on the cover of the hardback edition. This book, which is extremely well written, is not an easy book to read ... because of the horrors of genocide. I highly recommend this book.

From the publisher:

Adichie weaves together the lives of five characters caught up in the extraordinary tumult of the decade. Fifteen-year-old Ugwu is houseboy to Odenigbo, a university professor who sends him to school, and in whose living room Ugwu hears voices full of revolutionary zeal. Odenigbo’s beautiful mistress, Olanna, a sociology teacher, is running away from her parents’ world of wealth and excess; Kainene, her urbane twin, is taking over their father’s business; and Kainene’s English lover, Richard, forms a bridge between their two worlds. As we follow these intertwined lives through a military coup, the Biafran secession and the subsequent war, Adichie brilliantly evokes the promise, and intimately, the devastating disappointments that marked this time and place.

Here's Jill's review of this book.

Let's go around the WORLD

The world has many countries, some big and some small, and I want to find the best books about each country. The book should help us learn something ABOUT that country and not just be one written by somebody who lives there. Let's "book around the world" and find at least one excellent book for each country in the world.

At Book around the States we have a long list of books about states of the union, but we don't need EVERY book about a country, just the best ones. What have you read? What did you enjoy reading? Let's name some possibilities.

North America
Central America
Caribbean
South America
Europe
Africa
Middle East
Central Asia
Asia
Southeast Asia
Australia
Oceania
Anarctica

These are some of the areas of the world, so let's set out to find some books about the countries on the world's continents.