Read Around Europe Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Europe.
Best books from Europe (4405)
531.
Madam Secretary by Madeleine Albright EN
Country: Europe / 
Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Description:
“One of the most diverting political bios in recent memory.” -- Entertainment Weekly Revised and updated with a new epilogue, Madam Secretary is the moving and inspiring memoir of one of the most distinguished public figures in American history, seven-time New York Times bestselling author and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright A national bestseller on its first publication in 2003, Madam Secretary is the riveting personal story of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. For eight years, during Bill Clinton’s two presidential terms, Albright was an active participant in some of... continue
532.
Country: Europe / Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Description:
From the author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial—one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century—the haunting tale of K.’s relentless, unavailing struggle with an inscrutable authority in order to gain access to the Castle. Translated and with a preface by Mark Harman. Arriving in a village to take up the position of land surveyor for the mysterious lord of a castle, the character known as K. finds himself in a bitter and baffling struggle to contact his new employer and go about his duties. The Castle's original manuscript was left unfinished by Kafka in 1922 and not published until 19... continue
533.
Lettres à un jeune poète et autres lettres by Rainer Maria Rilke FR
Country: Europe / Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Description:
En 1903, Rainer Maria Rilke entame une correspondance avec un jeune homme de vingt ans, Franz Kappus, un élève du prytanée militaire, qui lui a envoyé ses premiers essais poétiques. Plusieurs lettres suivront, sue Kappus publiera en 1929, trois ans après la mort de Rilke. Ces textes sont devenus immédiatement célèbres et comptent parmi les plus beaux de Rilke ; au fil du temps et des réponses, ils composent une superbe méditation sur la solitude, la création, l'amour, m'accomplissement de l'être. Au-delà de ce recueil, d'autres lettres ont été ajoutées, adressées à Lou Andréas-Salomé, Friedric... continue
534.
The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hašek EN
Country: Europe / Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Description:
"Good-natured and garrulous, Švejk becomes the Austrian army's most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of the First World War - although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it. Playing cards, getting drunk and becoming a general nuisance, the resourceful Švejk uses all his natural cunning and genial subterfuge to deal with the doctors, police, clergy and officers who chivvy him towards battle. The story of a 'little man' caught in a vast bureaucratic machine, The Good Soldier Švejk combines dazzling wordplay and piercing satir... continue
535.
Die kleine Hexe by Otfried Preussler EN
Country: Europe / Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Description:
Warum soll eine gute Hexe nicht auch auf den Blocksberg d¿rfen? Ab 6 Die kleine Hexe ist leider erst 127 Jahre alt und wird deshalb von den gro¿n Hexen nicht f¿r voll genommen. Da sie nun keine gro¿ Hexe ist, will sie wenigstens eine gute sein. Mit diesem Entschluss beginnt ein aufregender Wirbel. Autorenportr¿ Otfried Preu¿er wurde am 20. Oktober 1923 in Reichenberg/B¿hmen geboren. Nach dem Krieg und f¿nf Jahren hinter sowjetischem Stacheldraht kam er nach Oberbayern. Er lebt mit seiner Familie in der N¿ von Rosenheim, war bis 1970 Volksschullehrer und widmet sich seither ausschlie¿ich seiner... continue
536.
Příspěvek k dějinám radosti by Radka Denemarková CS
Country: Europe / Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Description:
The suicide of a wealthy elderly man soon proves to be improbable. The perceptive policeman tirelessly searches for the real reasons for the strange death, which will lead him to the mysterious house under Petrin. The mysteries and motives increase as the hours spent with the young widow increase. The main characters are three, perhaps four women, educated, bold and devoted to a higher justice, according to which the victim and the culprit lose their original duality. And the burning question echoes: how much more violence and wars await us before all this human misfortune finally becomes huma... continue
537.
The Master of the Day of Judgment by Leo Perutz EN
Country: Europe / Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Description:
Vienna, 1909. When the celebrated actor Eugen Bischoff is found dead in his garden pavilion, suspicion falls immediately on Baron von Yosch, a well-to-do army officer who was once the lover of the dead man’s wife. By all appearances—the door was locked from the inside when the two shots rang out—the actor took his own life, but someone, or something, drove him to it. The baron sets out to learn all he can about the actor’s death in order to clear his name. Meanwhile, within a few days, similar apparent suicides are reported. What started out as a straightforward quest to establish Bischoff’s l... continue
538.
R.U.R. Rossum Universal Robots by Karel Čapek PT
Country: Europe / Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Description:
A phenomenal Czech science fiction play that introduced robots to modern literature. R.U.R. - Rossum's Universal Robots explores the ethical implications behind humanity’s enslavement of a man-made race. Opening in the Roboti factory, this play poses moral and ethical questions as we watch humans create a new life form. R.U.R. are intelligent robots built with the ability to think, feel, and act as freely as humans, but they are being sold as servants. As the robots tire of their ill-treatment and begin to revolt, could humanity have created its own death sentence? First published in 1920, Kar... continue
539.
No Saints Or Angels by Ivan Klíma EN
Country: Europe / Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Description:
Klima takes us into the heart of contemporary Prague, where the Communist People's Militia of the Stalinist era marches headlong into the drug culture of the present. Kristyna is in her forties, the divorced mother of a rebellious fifteen-year-old daughter, Jana. She is beginning to love a man fifteen years her junior, but her joy is clouded by worry — Jana has been cutting school, and perhaps using heroin. Meanwhile Kristyna's mother has forced on her a huge box of personal papers left by her dead father, a tyrant whose Stalinist ideals she despised.
540.
Closely Observed Trains by Bohumil Hrabal EN
Country: Europe / Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Description:
A classic of postwar literature, a small masterpiece of humour, humanity and heroism from one of the best Czech writers For twenty-two-year-old Milos, bumbling apprentice at a sleepy Czech railway station, life is full of worries: his burdensome virginity, his love for the pretty conductor Masha, the scandalous goings-on in the station master's office. Beside them, the part he will come to play against the occupying Germans seems a simple affair, in Bohumil Hrabal's touching, absurd masterpiece of humour, humanity and heroism. Closely Watched Trains, which became the award-winning Jiri Menzel ... continue