I have learned more about the world from books than from any other source. The following is a list of books across a wide variety of genres: travel books, personal narratives, social commentary, straight fiction. They have two things in common: (1) outstanding writing, (2) vivid, insightful views into a place or a culture. Read one of these books, and you’ll have a great time, feel like you’ve been there, and feel like you need to get on the next flight there. Guaranteed.
Notes on the list:
– There is a “multiple countries” section at the bottom of the list for books that equally depict 3 or more countries.
– In cases of multiple books for one author, the first one listed is the most highly recommended.
Afghanistan
– Khaled Hosseini: The Kite Runner
– Nushin Arbabzadah: Afghan Rumor Bazaar
– Rory Stewart: The Places in Between
China
– Susan Jane Gilman: Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven
– William Dalrymple: In Xanadu
Canada
– Farley Mowat: The Snow Walker, Northern Latitudes
– Margaret Atwood: Cat’s Eye
– Mordecai Richler: Barney’s Version, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Democratic Republic of Congo
– VS Naipual: A Bend in the River
Ethiopia
– Abraham Verghese: Cutting for Stone
– Maaza Mengiste: The Shadow King
Japan
– Erik Christian Haugaard: A Samurai’s Tale
India
– Amitav Ghosh: The Hungry Tide
– Arundhati Roy: The God of Small Things
– Gregory David Roberts: Shantaram
– Salman Rushdie: The Ground Beneath Her Feet
– William Dalrymple: City of Djinns
Mozambique
– VS Naipaul: Half a Life
Nepal
– John Krakauer: Into Thin Air
Nigeria
– Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, Anthills of the Savannah
– Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun, Americanah
Senegal
– Mariama Bâ: So Long a Letter
– Ousmane Sembène: God’s Bits of Wood, Xala
South Africa
– Trevor Noah: Born a Crime
UK
– Nick Hornby: Fever Pitch
USA
– Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club
– Edward Abbey: Desert Solitaire
– Gary Paulsen: Winterdance
Zimbabwe
– Peter Godwin: Mukiwa
Books about multiple countries:
– Ryszard Kapuscinski: Shadow of the Sun (Many countries throughout Africa)
– Tim Cope: On the Trail of Genghis Khan: An Epic Journey through the Land of the Nomads (Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary)