2019 Read Round The World Challenge – 146 Books Recommendation

AFRICA

1. Nedjma by Kateb Yacine – Algeria (Fiction) – Nedjma is the central figure of this disorienting novel, but more than the unfortunate wife of a man she does not love, more than the unwilling cause of rivalry among many suitors, Nedjma is the symbol of Algeria.
2. What the Day Owes the Night by Yasmina Khadra – Algeria (Fiction) – Life is changed forever when his poverty-stricken parents surrender him to the care of his more affluent uncle. Renamed Jonas, he grows up in a colourful colonial Algerian town, and forges a unique friendship with a group of boys, an enduring bond that nothing – not even the Algerian Revolt – will shake.
3. Far and Beyon’ by Unity Dow – Botswana (Fiction) – A stirring novel about individuals struggling to define themselves as well as their family, this is an unforgettable glimpse into modern African culture and the challenges of balancing history against the hope of progress.
4. The Parachute Drop by Norbert Zongo – Burkina Faso (Fiction) – Norbert Zongo was Burkina Faso’s most respected journalist before his politically motivated murder in 1998. This novel is an eerily prophetic narra- tive, foretelling many of the events that preceeded his death.
5. Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, 1983-87 by Thomas Sankara – Burkina Faso (Non-Fiction, Biography) – He rejected all foreign aid and nationalised land and mineral wealth. This book brings us Sankara in his own words, with a selection from his writings and interviews from 1983 until his tragic and untimely assassination in 1987.
6. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue – Cameroon (Fiction) – Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem has come to the United States to provide a better life for himself, and his family.
7. Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz – Egypt (Fiction) – It introduces the engrossing saga of a Muslim family in Cairo during Egypt’s occupation by British forces in the early 1900s.
8. A Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif – Egypt (Fiction) – In 1900 Lady Anna Winterbourne travels to Egypt where she falls in love with Sharif, and Egyptian Nationalist utterly committed to his country’s cause.
9. The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany – Egypt (Fiction) – The Yacoubian Building holds all that Egypt was and has become over the 75 years since its namesake was built on one of downtown Cairo’s main boulevards.
10. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese – Ethiopia (Fiction) – Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles—and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.
11. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi – Ghana (Fiction) – Taking us from the Gold Coast of Africa to the cotton-picking plantations of Mississippi; from the missionary schools of Ghana to the dive bars of Harlem, spanning three continents and seven generations, Yaa Gyasi has written a miraculous …
12. Allah is not obliged by Ahmadou Kourouma – Ivory Coast (Fiction) – In this powerful novel about Africa’s child-soldiers, an orphaned ten-year-old boy leaves his village in the Ivory Coast, and crosses the border into Liberia where he is press-ganged into military service.
13. Weep Not, Child by Ngugi w Thiong’o – Kenya (Fiction) – This is a simple and powerful tale of the effects of the Mau Mau war on individuals and families in Kenya.
14. Betrayal in the City by Francis Imbuga – Kenya (Fiction) – In the words of one of the characters: “It was better while we waited. Now we have nothing to look forward to. We have killed our past and are busy killing our future”. Francis Imbuga is a playwright and actor.
15. The Challenge for Africa by Wangari Maathai – Kenya (Non-Fiction) – Informed by her three decades as an environmental activist and campaigner for democracy, The Challenge for Africa celebrates the enduring potential of the human spirit, and reminds us that change is always possible.
16. The Happy Marriage by Tahar Ben Jelloun – Morocco (Fiction) – In The Happy Marriage, the internationally acclaimed Moroccan author Tahar Ben Jelloun tells the story of one couple—first from the husband’s point of view, then from the wife’s—just as legal reforms are about to change women’s rights forever.
17. This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun – Morocco (Fiction) – A chilling fictional account of the horrific desert concentration camps in which King Hassan II of Morocco held his political enemies and the inhumane …
18. Leaving Tangier by Jelloun, Tahar Ben – Morocco (Fiction) – Facing a future with few prospects in a country they feel has failed them, their disillusionment is matched only by their desire to reach this paradise – so close and yet so far, not least because of the treacherous waters separating the …
19. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe – Nigeria (Fiction) – Novel chronicles the life of Okonkwo, the leader of an Igbo (Ibo) community, from the events leading up to his banishment from the community for accidentally killing a clansman, through the seven years of his exile, to his return.
20. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Nigeria (Fiction) – The limits of fifteen-year-old Kambili’s world are defined by the high walls of her family estate and the dictates of her fanatically religious father. Her life is regulated by schedules: prayer, sleep, study, prayer.
21. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Nigeria (Non-Fiction, Essay) – Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman now—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for …
22. Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza – Rwanda (Non-Fiction) – Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee’s family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans.
23. Father to My Siblings by Olivier Sempiga – Rwanda (Non-Fiction) – Nadina works as a journalist on a private television in her country. She writes a series of e-mails to her father, who passed on to the other world during a war that tore apart her beloved nation. She relates her story of resilience, perseverance, and courage after a breakthrough is achieved in communication and people from this world are able to communicate with other people in the other world of the living dead
24. So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba – Senegal (Fiction) – This novel is in the form of a letter, written by the widowed Ramatoulaye and describing her struggle for survival. It is the winner of the Noma Award.
25. The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna – Sierra Leone (Fiction) – The Memory of Love is a heartbreaking story of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.
26. From a crooked rib by Nuruddin Farah – Somalia (Fiction) – Written with complete conviction from a woman’s point of view, Nuruddin Farah’s spare, shocking first novel savagely attacks the traditional values of his people yet is also a haunting celebration of the unbroken human spirit.
27. Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton – South Africa (Fiction, Mystery) – Cry the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice.
28. Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah – South Africa (Non-Fiction, Biography) – Tells the story of growing up mixed race in South Africa under and after apartheid in this young readers’ adaptation of his bestselling adult memoir Born a Crime: Stories from a South African …
29. Gem Squash Tokoloshe by Rachel Zadok – South Africa (Fiction, Memoir) – Rachel weaves us back and forth from reality to fantasy, using a lot of the African folklore. Told from the point of view of the daughter growing up on a isolated farm in South Africa.
30. They Poured Fire On Us from The Sky by Benson deng, Alephonsion Deng, and Benjamin Ajak – Sudan (Non-Fiction) – The inspiring story of three young Sudanese boys who were driven from their homes by civil war and began an epic odyssey of survival, facing life-threatening perils, ultimately finding their way to a new life in America.
31. Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi – Uganda (Fiction) – In this epic tale of fate, fortune and legacy, Jennifer Makumbi vibrantly brings to life this corner of Africa and this colourful family as she reimagines the history of Uganda through the cursed bloodline of the Kintu clan.
32. Dead Aid – Why Aid is Not Working by Dambisa Moyo – Zambia (Non-Fiction) – A national bestseller, Dead Aid unflinchingly confronts one of the greatest myths of our time: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth.
33. A Cowrie of Hope by Binwell Sinyangwe – Zambia (Fiction) – This reimagining of the Robin Hood legend tells the story of the young boy behind the bandit hero’s rise to fame.
34. We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo – Zimbabwe (Fiction) – The unflinching and powerful story of a young girl’s journey out of Zimbabwe and to America. Darling is only ten years old, and yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world.
35. The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah – Zimbabwe (Fiction) – Memory, the narrator of The Book of Memory, is an albino woman languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she has been convicted of murder.
36. House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera – Zimbabwe (Fiction) – In a style somewhat reminiscent of Joyce’s Dubliners, the stories deal with psychological and social alienation. Dambudzo Marechera’s work is not material typically associated with African literature.

EUROPE

1. Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare – Albania (Fiction) – A coming-of-age tale by the inaugural Man Booker International Prize winner follows a young man’s efforts to juggle the challenges of growing up in Albania during the terrors of World War II, a period marked by devastating cruelty.
2. Broken April by Ismail Kadare – Albania (Fiction) – Gjorg Berisha, a 26-year-old Albanian man living on the country’s high plateau, is forced to commit a murder under the laws of the Kanun to avenge his brother. As a result of this killing, his own death is sealed; he is to be killed by a member of the opposing family.
3. The Siege by Ismail Kadare – Albania (Fiction) – Ismail Kadare’s The Siege dramatizes a fictional fifth century assault by the Ottoman Army on a Christian fortress in the Albanian mountains.
4. The Teacher of Cheops by Albert Salvado – Andorra (Fiction) – This is the history of the time of Pharaoh Snefru and Queen Hetepheres, the parents of Cheops, who built the largest and most impressive pyramid of all.
5. Confusion by Stefan Zweig – Austria (Fiction) – Confusion is the account of Roland, who has become enamored of the intellectual, bewildering, and isolated world of his greatest idol, his college professor.
6. The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler – Austria (Fiction) – Set at a time of lengthening shadows, this is a novel about the sparks that illuminate the dark: of wisdom, compassion, defiance and courage.
7. Noah’s Child by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt – Belgium (Fiction) – A beautiful and tender fable seen the world through the eyes of a Jewish child living in Belgium under the Nazi occupation.
8. Under the Yoke by Ivan Vazov – Bulgaria (Fiction) – The plot follows the story of Boicho Ognyanov, who, having escaped from a prison in Diarbekir, returns to the Bulgarian town of Byala Cherkva to take part in the rebellion. There he meets old friends, enemies, and the love of his life.
9. Babette’s Feast by Karen Blixen – Denmark (Fiction) – Babette’s Feast is a sublime celebration of eating, drinking and sensual pleasure.
10. The Dinosaur Feather by Sissel-Jo Gazan – Denmark (Fiction) – Anna Bella Nor is just two weeks away from revealing her controversial research on the evolutionary origin of birds when her supervisor Lars Helland is found dead . . . his tongue and a copy of her thesis in his lap.
11. Wildwitch:Wildfire by Lene Kaaberbøl – Denmark (Fiction) – An acclaimed new children’s fantasy series about a young girl who can communicate with and control the natural world.
12. Secret Passages in a Hillside Town by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen – Finland (Fiction) – Tense, atmospheric and often very funny, Secret Passages in a Hillside Town is a magical Finnish story from the author of the acclaimed The Rabbit Back Literature Society.
13. The Beggar and the Hare by Tuomas Kyro – Finland (Fiction) – In rescuing the little creature from certain death, he finds not just a companion, but a source of unexpected inspiration and wisdom. Together, the beggar and the hare embark on an adventure that is both funny and absurd.
14. My First Murder by Leena Lehtolainen – Finland (Fiction) – After a student choir’s practice session at a Helsinki villa turns deadly, Detective Maria Kallio finds herself in the middle of the action — and her first murder case.
15. The Outsider by Albert Camus – France (Fiction) – The Outsiders transformed young-adult fiction from a genre mostly about prom queens, football players and high school crushes to one that portrayed a darker, truer world.
16. Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau – France (Fiction) – Impish, foul-mouthed Zazie arrives in Paris from the country to stay with Gabriel, her female-impersonator uncle. All she really wants to do is ride the metro, but finding it shut because of a strike, Zazie looks for other means of amusement and is soon caught up in a comic adventure that becomes wilder and more manic by the minute.
17. Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar – France (Non-Fiction) – A fictional biography of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, written in the form of personal memoirs.
18. The Chatelet Apprentice by Jean-Francois Part – France (Fiction) – France 1761. Beyond the glittering court of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour at Versailles, lies Paris, a capital in the grip of crime and immorality …A police officer disappears and Nicolas Le Floch, a young recruit to the force, is instructed to find him.
19. Toby Alone by Timothee de Fombelle – France (Fiction, Fantasy) – Thirteen-year old Toby Lolness is just one and a half millimetres tall, and struggles to survive in a miniaturised world set in the branches of a giant oak tree.
20. Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck – Germany (Fiction) – One of the great contemporary European writers takes on Europe’s biggest issue Richard has spent his life as a university professor, immersed in the world of books and ideas, but now he is retired, his books remain in their packing boxes …
21. Dream a Little Dream: The Silver Trilogy by Kerstin Gier – Germany (Fiction, Fantasy) – Mysterious doors with lizard-head knobs. Talking stone statues. A crazy girl with a hatchet. Yes, Liv’s dreams have been pretty weird lately.
22. Sophie Scholl and the White Rose by Annette Dumbach and Jud Newborn – Germany (Non-Fiction, Memoir) – With detailed chronicles of Scholl’s arrest and trial before Hitler’s Hanging Judge, Roland Freisler, as well as appendices containing all of the leaflets the White Rose wrote and circulated exhorting Germans to stand up and fight back, …
23. Night Driver by Marcelle Perks – Germany (Fiction, Chrime, Thriller) – A most unlikely heroine, pregnant Frannie must stay one step ahead of her murderous pursuer on the darkest of roads in order to survive.
24. The Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi – Greece (Fiction, Thriller) – When the battered body of a young woman is discovered on a remote Greek island, the local police are quick to dismiss her death as an accident.
25. They Were Counted by Miklos Banffy – Hungary (Fiction) – Painting an unrivalled portrait of the vanished world of pre-1914 Hungary, this story is told through the eyes of two young Transylvanian cousins, Count Balint Abády and Count László Gyeroffy.
26. The Door by Magda Szabo – Hungary (Fiction) – Clever, moving, frightening, it is an unsettling exploration of the relationship between two very different women.
27. One Station Away by Olaf Olafsson – Iceland (Fiction) – An elusive dancer whose untimely death her fiancé is desperate to untangle. A mysterious patient who is comatose after a violent accident. These are the three women who animate Olaf Olafsson’s brilliantly rendered One Station Away.
28. Butterflies in November by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir – Iceland (Fiction) – Blackly comic and uniquely moving, Butterflies in November is an extraordinary, hilarious tale of motherhood, relationships and the legacy of life’s mistakes.
29. And the Wind Sees All by Gudmundur Andri Thorsson – Iceland (Fiction) – Relaxing Nordic hygge in a novel; the entire story takes place in two minutes. In this story we hear the voices of an Icelandic fishing village. On a summer’s day a young woman in a polka-dot dress cycles down the main street.
30. The Gathering by Anne Enright – Ireland (Fiction) – The Gathering is a novel about love and disappointment, about thwarted lust and limitless desire, and how our fate is written in the body, not in the stars.
31. Himself by Jess Kidd – Ireland (Fiction, Crime, Fantasy, Thriller) – Centering on a small town rife with secrets and propelled by a twisting-and-turning plot, Himself is a gem of a book, a darkly comic mystery, and a beautiful tribute to the magic of language, legacy, and storytelling.
32. Malacqua: Four Days of Rain in the City of Naples, Waiting for the Occurrence of an Extraordinary Event by Nicola Pugliese – Italy (Fiction) – First published by Calvino–this long-suppressed novel of a city under deluge shows a darker Naples, on the verge of collapse.
33. I, Francis by Carlo Carretto – Italy (Non-Fiction, Biography) – This beautiful little book is more of a meditation than a biography of S. Francis. It is written in the first person and while giving a fresh perspective on some of the historical events of Francis’s life it also expands his world view to interpret challenges that face the current generation.
34. Dog Town by Luize Pastore – Latvia (Fiction) – Strange things are afoot in the run-down Maskatchaka district of Riga, where Jacob now has to live. Evil Skylar Scraper’s scheme to transform it into a concrete jungle is being fought tooth and paw by the stray dogs, lead by their fierce commander Boss, his mate Bianca and their twin puppies.
35. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank – Netherlands (Non-Fiction) – A young girl’s journal records her family’s struggles during two years of hiding from the Nazis in war-torn Holland.
36. The Secret of the Wild Wood by Tonke Dragt – Netherlands (Fiction, Fantasy) – Strange rumours circulate about the Wild Wood: tales of robbers and lost cities, of dangerous knights and mysterious Men in Green… and now Sir Ristridin, last seen in that impenetrable forest, has disappeared.
37. Light of Amsterdam by David Park – Netherlands (Fiction) – It is December in Belfast, Christmas is approaching and three sets of people are about to make their way to Amsterdam. As these people brush against each other in the squares, museums and parks of Amsterdam, their lives are transfigured as they encounter the complexities of love in a city that challenges what has gone before.
38. Scheißrentiere by Magne Hovden – Norway (Fiction) – The Nordnorweger Leif and Roy dream of making the fast money. Leif has an ingenious idea: an adventure camp where stressed vacationers can live and rejuvenate with nature. No one knows that Leif and Roy have little idea of ​​the traditions. But some tourists are asking too many questions …
39. Eva’s Eye by Karin Fossum – Norway (Fiction) – Investigating the murder of a dead man who had been missing for months, Inspector Sejer and his team discover that his death is linked to the murder of a prostitute and to Eva, a struggling artist and a divorced single mother who holds to …
40. The Bat by Jo Nesbo – Norway (Fiction, Thriller) – The hunt for a serial killer is on, but the murderer will talk only to Harry. He might just be the next victim.
41. Detective Nosegood and the Museum Robbery by Marian Ortan – Poland (Fiction, Comic) – A famous picture is in danger of being stolen, the headquarters of the Circle of the Aficionados of Checkers has been robbed and an elusive pickpocket strikes at the celebrations to mark the hundredth anniversary of the founding of Lower Limewood.
42. Baltasar and Blimunda by Jose Saramago – Portugal (Fiction) – In early eighteenth-century Lisbon, Baltasar, a soldier who has lost his left hand in battle, falls in love with Blimunda, a young girl with visionary powers.
43. The Appointment by Herta Müller – Romania (Fiction) – Bone-spare and intense, The Appointment is a pitiless rendering of the terrors of a crushing regime.
44. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon – Spain (Fiction, Thriller) – When he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written.
45. The Invisible Guardian by Dolores Redondo – Spain (Fiction, Crime, Fantasy, Mystery) – This tautly written and gripping psychological thriller forces a police inspector to reluctantly return to her hometown in Basque Country – a place engulfed in mythology and superstition – to solve a series of eerie murders.
46. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson – Sweden (Fiction, Humor) – Sitting quietly in his room in an old people’s home, Allan Karlsson is waiting for a party he doesn’t want to begin.
47. The Helios Disaster by Linda Bostrøm Knausgaard – Sweden (Fiction) – The Helios Disaster is a contemporary mythical tale in which a father gives birth to a twelve-year-old girl, splitting his head open in the process.
48. The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg – Sweden (Fiction) – The story of brutal murders in a small Swedish fishing village, and the shattering, decades-old secrets that precipitated them.
49. Faceless Killers: A Mystery by Henning Mankell – Sweden (Fiction, Crime, Thriller) – Early one morning, a small-town farmer discovers that his neighbors have been victims of a brutal attack during the night: An old man has been bludgeoned to death, and his tortured wife lies dying before the farmer’s eyes. The only clue is the single word she utters before she dies: “foreign.”
50. The Sandman by Lars Kepler – Sweden (Fiction, Crime, Mystery, Thriller) – Jurek Walter is serving a life sentence. Kept in solitary confinement, he is still considered extremely dangerous by psychiatric staff.
51. Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov – Ukraine (Fiction, Crime, Humor) – Viktor is an aspiring writer with only Misha, his pet penguin, for company. Although he would prefer to write short stories, he earns a living composing obituaries for a newspaper.
52. The Milkman in the Night by Andrey Kurkov – Ukraine (Fiction) – Semyon is disturbed. He has woken up in the living room with blood on his shirt, an angry wife and no idea where he was the night before. When this happens several mornings in a row, he realises he needs to investigate.
53. No Ordinary Girl by Cheryl Elaine – United Kingdom (Fiction, Horror, Thriller) – What started out as a night of celebration for Aimee soon turned into a nightmare. Snatched by cruel, sadistic monsters – the worst creatures mankind has ever produced – she’s thrown into a metal container, among other victims too frightened to make a single sound.
54. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré – United Kingdom (Fiction, Adventure, Thriller) – In le Carré’s breakthrough work of 1963, the spy story is reborn as a gritty and terrible tale of men who are caught up in politics beyond their imagining. With a new introduction by William Boyd and an afterword by Le Carré himself.

NORTH AMERICA

1. A Perfect Grave by Rick Mofina – Canada (Fiction, Crime) – The face Sister Anne sees behind her in the mirror belongs to a man she knew years ago; the cold blade against her throat guarantees her silence.
2. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys – Dominica (Fiction) – Set against the lush backdrop of 1830s Jamaica, Jean Rhys’ powerful, haunting masterpiece was inspired by her fascination with the first Mrs Rochester, the mad wife in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.
3. Tentacle by Rita Indiana – Dominican Republic (Fiction, Science Fiction) – An electric tale of apocalypse, sex and time travel from one of the Caribbean’s most extraordinary cultural figures.
4. Clerise of Haiti by Marie-Therese Labossiere Thomas – Republic of Haiti (Fiction) – Clerise of Haiti is a story of three generations of Haitian women, and covers a thirty year span ending in the late 1970s.
5. Murder in Montego Bay by Paula Lennon – Jamaica (Fiction, Crime) – Introducing crime-fighting duo Jamaican Detective Raythan Preddy and Scottish lawman Detective Sean Harris set in the picturesque city of Montego Bay, Jamaica.
6. Pierced by the Sun by Laura Esquivel – Mexico (Fiction) – Lupita’s hard-knock life has gotten the better of her time and time again.
7. Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey A. Moore – United States of America (Non-Fiction, Textbook) – Here is the bestselling guide that created a new game plan for marketing in high-tech industries. Crossing the Chasm has become the bible for bringing cutting-edge products to progressively larger markets.
8. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas – United States of America (Fiction) – Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping novel about one girl’s struggle for justice.
9. Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance – United States of America (Non-Fiction) – J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck. The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America.
10. Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult – United States of America (Fiction) – Alice Metcalf vanished after a car accident, leaving her daughter Jenna to grow up grappling with the mystery of her disappearance.
11. The Destruction of Black Civilization – Greatest Issues of Race From 4500 B.C. To 2000 A.D by Chancellor Williams – United States of America (Non-Fiction, Textbook) – This is well researched scholarly work detailing the development of civilisation in Africa and its destruction.
12. Watching Glass Shatter by James J. Cudney IV – United States of America (Fiction) – After 40 years of marriage, Olivia Glass thought she could handle the unexpected death of her husband, but when Ben’s will reveals a long-held, life-altering secret, she suffers a blow no widow should ever experience.
13. Winter’s Bone by Daniel woodrell – United States of America (Fiction, Essay) – Amid the harsh landscape of the Ozark Hills, sixteen-year-old Ree is taking care of her mother and two brothers. Her father has put their house up as bail and if he doesn’t show up at court it’ll be sold from under them. To save her family she needs to track him down but in a community riven with long-running feuds getting answers isn’t easy.
14. The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman – United States of America (Fiction) – Documents the heroic true story of Warsaw Zoo keepers and resistance activists Jan and Antonina Zabinski who, in the aftermath of Germany’s invasion of Poland, saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish citizens by smuggling them into empty …
15. The 15:17 to Paris: The True Story of a Terrorist, a Train and Three American Heroes by Anthony Sadler – United States of America (Non-Fiction, Thriller) – The 15:17 to Paris is an amazing true story of friendship and bravery, of near tragedy averted by three young men who found the heroic unity and strength inside themselves at the moment when they, and 500 other innocent travelers, needed it …

OCEANIA

1. Create Or Hate: Successful People Make Things by Dan Norris – Australia (Non-Fiction, Self-help) – Most of us have always wanted to make something, but for any number of reasons haven’t.
2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – Australia (Fiction) – By 1943, the Allied bombs are falling, and the sirens begin to wail. Liesel shares out her books in the air-raid shelters. But one day, the wail of the sirens comes too late.
3. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton – Australia (Fiction) – Tim Winton’s funny, sprawling saga is an epic novel of love and acceptance. A rambunctious saga of haunting, loving and letting go.
4. A Thousand Perfect Notes by C G Drews – Australia (Fiction) – But dare he reach for it? Thrilling and powerfully written, this is an explosive debut for YA readers which tackles the dark topic of domestic abuse in an ultimately hopeful tale.
5. After The Fall by Charity Norman – New Zealand (Fiction) – After the Fall (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again) is a masterful picture book that will remind readers of all ages that Life begins when you get back up.

SOUTH AMERICA

1. The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle – Cuba (Non-Fiction) – Born a slave, raised by a woman not his mother, and denied an education, Juan overcame all the personal obstacles he faced as a child in order to reach freedom, pursue his natural talents, and become the celebrated poet he was destined to …
2. Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras – Argentina (Fiction) – Kamchatka is a heartbreaking novel; set in Argentina during the bloody coup d’etat of 1976, it tells the enchanting story of a young boy trying to make sense of a world during a time of extraordinary upheaval.
3. The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara – Argentina (Non-Fiction) – One of them was the twenty-three-year-old Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara. Written eight years before the Cuban Revolution, these are the diaries of Che Guevara, full of disasters and discoveries, high drama and laddish improvisations.
4. Ghost of Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen – Bolivia (Fiction) – Will he throw everything away that he learned on the healing, remote Alaskan island? In this tale of teenage survival and self-awareness, Cole realizes it’s not enough to change himself. He has to change his world.
5. The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo – Brazil (Fiction) – It is the alchemist. The tribal chieftain arms his men, and they are well-prepared when the oasis is indeed invaded. The alchemist offers to cross the desert with Santiago. Soon the two men enter into an area of intense tribal warfare.
6. A General Theory of Oblivion by Jose Eduardo Agualusa – Brazil (Fiction) – A General Theory of Oblivion is a perfectly crafted, wild patchwork of a novel, playing on a love of storytelling and fable.
7. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende – Chile (Fiction) – The Trueba family embodies strong feelings. This family saga starts at the beginning of the 20th century and continues through the assassination of Allende in 1973.
8. 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Colombia (Fiction) – Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an accounting of the history of the human race.
9. The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa – Peru (Fiction) – The Feast of the Goat will stand out as the great emblematic novel of Latin America’s twentieth century and removes One Hundred Years of Solitude of that title.

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