Read Around Europe Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Europe.
Best books from Europe (4397)
331.
The Sorrow of Belgium by Hugo Claus, Arnold J. Pomerans EN
BelgiumDescription:
A classic novel in the tradition of The Tin Drum, The Sorrow of Belgium is a searing, scathingly funny portrait of a wartime Belgium and one boy's coming of age -- emotionally, sexually, and politically. In 1939, Louis Seynaeve, a ten-year-old Flemish student, is chiefly occupled with schoolboy adventures and lurid adolescent fantasies. Then the Nazis invade Belgium, and he grows up fast. Bewildered by his family -- a stuffy father who actually welcomes the occupation and a flirtatious mother who works for (and plays with) the Germans -- he is seemingly at the center of so much he can't unders... continue
332.
Dreissig Tage by Annelies Verbeke DE
Description:
Der Gegensatz könnte größer nicht sein zwischen dem offenherzigen, senegalesischen Musiker Alphonse und dem verregneten, flämischen Flachland mit seiner zugeknöpften Biederkeit und seinen Weltkriegsgräbern. Und doch zieht Alphonse mit seiner Brüsseler Freundin Kat genau hierher, um am Dorf ein neues Leben zu beginnen. Er verdingt sich als Heimwerker, und während er stets gut gelaunt Hecken schneidet, Dachböden ausräumt und Wände streicht, erzählen ihm die Nachbarn von Träumen und Affären, Familiengeheimnissen und Alltagssorgen. Alphonse arbeitet, hört zu und wird bald unentbehrlich. Und währen... continue
333.
Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing by May Sarton EN
Description:
"The plot of this short novel is deceptively simple, the mood subtle, the feeling intense. And the music of Miss Sarton's prose leaves compelling echoes in one's mind." --New York Times Book Review
334.
The Fortress by Meša Selimović EN
Country: Europe / 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
The Fortress is one of the most significant and fascinating novels to come out of the former Yugoslavia. Ahmet Shabo returns home to eighteenth-century Sarajevo from the war in Russia, numbed by the death in battle or suicide of nearly his entire military unit. In time he overcomes the anguish of war, only to find that he has emerged a reflective and contemplative man in a society that does not value, and will not tolerate, the subversive implications of these qualities.
335.
Death and the Dervish by Meša Selimović EN
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
Sheikh Nuruddin is a dervish at a Sarajevo monastery in the eighteenth century during the Turkish occupation. When his brother is arrested, he descends into the Kafkaesque world of the Turkish authorities in order to find out what has happened. As he does so, he begins to question his relations with society as a whole and, eventually, his life choices in general. Hugely successful when published in the 1960s, Death and the Dervish appears here in its first English translation.
336.
The Bridge Over the Drina by Ivo Andrić EN
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
'By the time I finished it something in me had shifted forever' Elif Shafak, New Statesman There is no hero or heroine in this book. Instead, there is a bridge, and there are the characters that have loved it, hated it, built it or tried to destroy it. Ivo Andric, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, grew up beside it. For more than four hundred years a bridge has spanned the River Drina in Bosnia. This novel is its chronicle. Radisav, a workman, tries to hinder its construction and is impaled alive on its highest point. Beautiful Fata leaps from its parapet to escape an arranged marriage.... continue
337.
The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić EN
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
Chronicle of three centuries of Balkan life, centering around a great stone bridge in present-day Yugoslavia.
338.
Generation haram : Warum Schule lernen muss, allen eine Stimme zu geben by Melisa Erkurt DE
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
Jetzt sind die Verlierer dran mit Reden! Die Journalistin und Lehrerin Melisa Erkurt gibt denen eine Stimme, die im System Schule nicht gehört werden. Ein Perspektivenwechsel in der Bildungsdebatte
Melisa Erkurt ist als Kind mit ihren Eltern aus Bosnien nach Österreich gekommen. Sie hat studiert. Sie arbeitet als Lehrerin und Journalistin. Sie hat es geschafft. Doch sie ist eine Ausnahme. Denn am Ende eines Schuljahres entlässt sie die Klasse mit dem Wissen, dass die meisten ihrer Schülerinnen und Schüler nie ausreichend gut Deutsch sprechen werden, um ihr vorgezeic... continue
339.
Goodbye Sarajevo : A True Story of Courage, Love and Survival by Atka Reid, Hana Schofield EN
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
A moving and compelling true story about two sisters fighting for survival in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war
340.
How The Soldier Repairs The Gramophone by Saša Stanišić EN
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
“A brilliant debut novel” about a young Bosnian War refugee who finds the secret to survival in language and stories (Los Angeles Times). For Aleksandar Krsmanović, Grandpa Slavko’s stories endow life in Višegrad with a kaleidoscopic brilliance. Neighbors, friends, and family past and present take on a mythic quality; the River Drina courses through town like the pulse of life itself. So when his grandfather dies suddenly, Aleksandar promises to carry on the tradition. But then soldiers invade Višegrad—a town previously unconscious of racial and religious divides—and it’s no longer important t... continue