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World Lit

This group is to share and discuss your world literature favorites -- especially if they're off the beaten path. If you love books by non-Western writers, then this is the group for you!

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  • BookBum

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    I'm a new member as well and would like to start an Introduce Yourself thread for anyone interested in sharing. Maybe share a little bit about yourself, what you like to read, and what you hope to get out of this site.

    I live in Cleveland suburb, work for a large county welfare department, I have 4 children (3 grown, 1 teenager). I live with my husband and 3 of the kids.

    I'm very interested in literature from around the world, hence my joining this site and I hope to find unique book recommendations and maybe some interesting discussions about books.

    I would really like some suggestions on Egyptian writers. Naguib Mahfouz has left so I'm posing the question: Who will be the new voice of Egypt? Who will write the recent events in Cairo in novel form one day?
    BookBum started this discussion 2 years ago. ( reply | permalink )

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  • tapbirds

    tapbirds (edited)

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    Hi wendy:

    May I be second? I live in San Francisco, am recently 'semi-retired' after 38 years in the chemistry and computer industry. However I hope to soon start anew teaching high school; probably math and science. We'll see. I am married and have a 31 year old daughter who also lives in San Francisco. My hobbies, besides reading, include photography, natural history (especially birding), backpacking/hiking, modern art and church work. I traveled considerably for my previous job to Europe and Asia, therefore I especially love literature reflecting those regions and cultures. However I also appreciate many writers who have written about Africa: Djebar, Lessing, Le Clezio, Soyinka, Coetzee, Adichie, Farah, Achebe . . . and yes, especially Naguib Mahfouz! He is sorely missed, and I have absolutely no idea who could succeed him as master Story Teller of Egyptian current events.

    posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
  • BookBum
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    Hello! I have read Coetzee, Le Clezio, and Achebe but none of the others. I have The Prospector by Le Clezio on my pile of To Be Read Soon. Someone recently suggested Dave Eggers as an African writer. Have you heard of him?
    I read The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany last week. It was ok. I think if one knew even a little about Egypt they would have found the story a bit predictable.
    I recently read for the first time Sandor Marai from Hungary and loved him. His books are being translated now to much aclaim. I read Embers, it was beautiful. I also read Palel Huelle from Poland. He wrote a pre-quel to Magic Mountain, Castorp. I have not read Magic Mt but I really enjoyed Castorp. They aren't from developing countries but they are rather new.
    So nice to hear from you!
    W.

    posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
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    • mamabird5o
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      One of my favorites is Portuguese writer Jose Saramago; some of my favorites are Balthazar & Blimunda, Blindness, and All the Names. You might want to try some of these.

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
  • BookBum
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    Saramago is my very favorite! We've been discussing him on Brilliant Babes and Dudes group. I was very disappointed to find the Nobel group and see that the posts about Saramago were so old. I have read All the Names (my favorite), The Cave, The Gospel According to JC, The Tale of the Unknown Island, Blindness (my least favorite), The History of the Siege of Lisbon, half of The Elephant's Journey, several entries in The Notebook, and I have just started Death with Interuptions. Saramago probably isn't World lit since he is well known but I do love talking about him!
    I would really like to see this World Literature group be active. I was told that Best Translated Books is a good resource to find books from around the world.

    posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
  • mamabird5o
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    I think its interesting that you mentioned that All the Names is your favorite - I have trouble picking a favorite since Saramago's work is so varied, but I would also put All the Names high on my llist, too. Saramago's plots are so inventive, but none so much as All the Names, which takes on the small world of the file clerk, rather than a large subject, like Bllindness. I like the narrow focus on the single character and the exploration into his motivation.

    right now, I'm reading The Hakawati by Lebanese author Rabeh Alameddine. It had rave reviews, but it has not yet won me over.

    I. too, would like to read an Egyptian author, particularly one who addresses life in current Egypt, leading up to the current upheaval. Has anyone found one yet?

    posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
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    • entwined
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      I could not get through "The Hawawati" and it is rare that I don't finish a book.

      While not about the events leading up to current Egypt, Taher Bahaa's book "Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery" is a well written, although short, book.

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
  • BookBum
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    I just read The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany. It was good, not great, but good. Definitely contemporary Egypt. Karnak Cafe by Mahfouz was written in the 1960s but is still relevant. It deals with the effect the hated Egyptian police have on the trust and friendships in a small Cairo cafe. It was very good.

    I agree Saramago's works are varied but for some reason Blindness felt even more different from the rest of his body of work...maybe it's just me.

    posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
  • Leigh
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    Hi Wendy,

    I'm new to Shelfari so I thought I would introduce myself!

    I'm 25, live in Johannesburg, South Africa, and I am a sub-editor. I have no kids and no pets, but I do have a boyfriend and a garden.

    I love reading comtemporary African fiction, memoirs and travelogues. I read many other genres, but these are what you will find on my bookshelf.

    I would appreciate any suggestions for good African fiction or memoirs (current ones) set in Central, Northern or Western Africa.
    I enjoyed the novels of writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Chinua Achebe, but I would like to read something more up-to-date.
    Any suggestions welcome :)

    posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
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    • tapbirds
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      Hi Wendy:

      Welcome - - great to have a 'Jozi' in the group!

      Have you by any chance read any Assia Djebar (Fantasia), Nuruddin Farah (Blood in the Sun trilogy), or Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (Petals of Blood)? I recommend them all. Also, if interested, you might want to peruse my Shelfari bookshelf under the "African Literature" tag (link below) . . . I've included many novels that have been recommended, but that are still on my "TBR" list.
      http://www.shelfari.com/tapbirds/tags/african%20literature

      Best wishes, and again, welcome!
      Sincerely,
      Scott (alias tapbirds)
      San Francisco California

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
    • Leigh
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      Hi Scott,

      Thank you :) And thanks for the recommendations - I have not read any of those. I will put them on my "to look for in the library" list! I will also browse through your 'TBR' list for some new authors to read.

      Living in South Africa, I have read many southern African authors (particularly South African and Zimbabwean/Rhodesian), but I'm struggling to find good books by my northern neighbours, and our libraries and bookshops tend to carry only local and Western authors.

      Thanks again for the suggestions!

      Leigh

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
    • mamabird5o
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      Yes, thanks for the suggestions. It is always good to have someone from the area suggest books. I'm going to start looking for these right away!

      Carol Butler
      New Albany, Indiana, USA

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
  • alison d
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    Hi my name is Alison and have been on this site for a few years. I love to read and love all types of books except maybe mysteries. I have a big variety on my shelf, love stories from around the world. I have a huge wish list going as I want to remember what interest me.
    My other passion is photography, I have two children one about to graduate college and the other living in Washington DC. I am living in Florida with my 2 dogs and 2 birds.

    Wendy you mentioned wanting to read books from Egypt, I have 2 on my shelf but I have not read them yet so cannot say how they are, but here are the titles:

    The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World
    by Lucette Matalon Lagnado

    Woman At Point Zero
    by Nawal El Saadawi

    posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
  • BookBum
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    Thank you for the recommendations! It's great to 'meet' everyone.
    I just got a new book, it's neither African nor Egyptian but it is World Lit; Savushun it's a very well reviewed Persian/modern Iran book by an Iranian woman. The setting is Iran in the 1940s. I read the first few pages to get a feel for it and it seems very good. I had already started Magic Mountain, a Sherlock Holmes story, and a compilation of Abe Lincoln essays so I will have to get back to the Persian story, but I thought I'd let you all know about it.

    I have some books to put on my Wish List now!

    Happy Reading!

    posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
  • tapbirds
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    Another fascinating Iranian novel from the 1940's (I think) is "Blind Owl" by Sadegh Hedayat.

    posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
  • BookSnacker
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    Hi group! I am a 29 year old from the U.S.A. I have read a LOT of British and American books, but hardly any from other countries or cultures. I am excited to expand my world view and make friends so I can better understand how the rest of the world thinks :)

    posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
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    • tapbirds
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      Welcome! Best wishes in your international reading quest - - hopefully you should be able to glean some recommendations from our posts.

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
    • alison d
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      Welcome to the site, there are so many great books out there from around the world, that I am sure you will find many to satisfy your curiosity. I may have some on my shelf that would interest you.

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
  • Amith
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    Hi guys... I'm 24, from Bangalore, India... I'm a doctor by profession, pursuing my Post- Graduation... In my olden i'd been a lot into fiction... but lately I've developed interest in books with historical anecdotes and fiction alike... It's been hard on me to spare some time off academics, nevertheless I make it a point to come up with some good books... I hope Windy and others will help help me out with much more interesting books...
    Thank you for letting me be a part of this group...

    posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
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    • tapbirds
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      Welcome - - Bangalore is truly a beautiful city! Hope you find some good historic fiction recommendations on this site, it's an interesting genre.

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
  • alison d
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    Welcome, I hope through some of the member of this group you are able to find some great reads. I love stories from around the world.

    posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
  • Matilda S
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    Hi! I am Finnish but living in Brussels since 15 years. One of the many types of books I enjoy reading is world literature. I like writers like Chimamnda Ngozi Adichie, Aminatta Forna, Ben Okri, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Rohinton Mistry, Kamila Shamsie and Haruki Murakami. I am hoping that I will discover other (maybe less well known) writers though this group.

    posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
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    • Leigh
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      Hi Matilda,

      I am South African, and I can recommend Henrietta Rose-Innes, Lauren Liebenburg and Mark Behr as some South African authors you should investigate. Some enjoyable Zimbabwean authors are Petina Gappah, Peter Godwin and Alexandra Fuller (among many, many others).

      Have a look at my shelf for some of my other favourites :)

      Happy reading!

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
    • alison d
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      Hi, you may also want to check out my shelf as I love books from all over.

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
    • tapbirds
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      Welcome Matilda - - I'm sure you will be introduced to some excellent writers and novels on this group; I certainly was!

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
    • *Satara * 

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      I've heard of Anita Desai-any relation?
      I've enjoyed Barbara Kimenye's stories, from Uganda.

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
    • Matilda S
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      Kiran Desai is Anita Desai's daughter. I have also read one book by Anita Desai, but it was many years ago and I have forgotten the name of the book. I Remember that I liked it, though.

      Kiran Desai has written two books; 'Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard', about a young man who moves into a tree to escape his family and responsibilities, but ends up having lots of followers, while his family try to make his new status into a business; and 'The Inheritance of loss' about an orphaned girl living with her grandfather as an insurgency develops in the region.

      Thank you for the tip!

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
    • *Satara * 

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      Really? Mother-daughter writers. How interesting. Was it by any chance Games at Twilght? That's the Anita Desai work I read. I liked it as well. Enchanted me with their play.
      You're welcome :) If you'd like, try this story, The Winner, as an introduction to her.

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
  • *Satara * 

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    Hello :) I have been on Shelfari for quite a while but I was exhilirated to discover this group. IWorld Lit is a passion of mine: Gabriel Garcia Marquz to Colette to Tariq Ali to Naguib Mahfouz. I love Arundhati Roy as well-so far stilll reading The God of Small Things. :)

    posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
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    • tapbirds
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      Naguib Mahfouz is one of my all-time favorite authors - - an incredible story teller!

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
    • *Satara * 

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      Have you read Tayeb Salih?

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
    • tapbirds
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      No, I assume that this is a recommendation? If so, thanks!

      posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
  • Hock
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    Hi, I just joined today.

    Yann Martel' Life of Pi and Murakami's Kafka on the Shre are books I recently read that may interest others on this thread. Also there is a Turkish writer whose name completely escapes my mind for now (so sorry).

    posted 1 year ago. ( permalink )
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    • tapbirds
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      Welcome to the group Hock Guan! I look forward to hearing more World Lit recommendations from you!

      Could the Turkish writer be Orhan Pamuk?

      posted 1 year ago. ( permalink )
  • Marianne
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    Hello, I live in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I am very interested in stories set in/authored by cultures other than my own. I just finished The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Lemmon, and I loved it. Although non-fiction, it reads like fiction.

    Here's a brief description (on amazon.com): The life Kamila Sidiqi had known changed overnight when the Taliban seized control of the city of Kabul. After receiving a teaching degree during the civil war—a rare achievement for any Afghan woman—Kamila was subsequently banned from school and confined to her home. When her father and brother were forced to flee the city, Kamila became the sole breadwinner for her five siblings. Armed only with grit and determination, she picked up a needle and thread and created a thriving business of her own.

    The Dressmaker of Khair Khana tells the incredible true story of this unlikely entrepreneur who mobilized her community under the Taliban. Former ABC News reporter Gayle Tzemach Lemmon spent years on the ground reporting Kamila's story, and the result is an unusually intimate and unsanitized look at the daily lives of women in Afghanistan. These women are not victims; they are the glue that holds families together; they are the backbone and the heart of their nation. Afghanistan's future remains uncertain as debates over withdrawal timelines dominate the news.


    The Dressmaker of Khair Khana moves beyond the headlines to transport you to an Afghanistan you have never seen before. This is a story of war, but it is also a story of sisterhood and resilience in the face of despair. Kamila Sidiqi's journey will inspire you, but it will also change the way you think about one of the most important political and humanitarian issues of our time.



    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    posted 1 year ago. ( permalink )
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    • tapbirds
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      Welcome Marianne - - and thanks for the introduction and Dressmaker review. Sounds like a fascinating read!

      posted 1 year ago. ( permalink )
    • alison d
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      Welcome, I hope you find some interesting books through this site or on our shelves. I have the one you mentioned on my wish list already, thanks for the review.

      posted 1 year ago. ( permalink )
  • John J. Gaynard
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    Wendy W.,

    Thanks for starting this thread. I have always admired Naguib Mahfouz. I would go a little further than you and say that The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany is verging on the great. I have worked in Egypt and other Arab countries, like Algeria and so I am always interested in writers from that part of the world. If you are interested in reading some of the best recent Algerian writers I would recommend The Tongue's Blood Does Not Run Dry, or any other novel by by Assia Djebar, or the crime novels set in Algiers by Yasmina Khadra (Wolf Dreams, for example).

    posted 1 year ago. ( permalink )
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    • Geoffrey Fox
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      And thanks to John for those recommendations. I've read only three of Mahfouz's novels so far, two of them very short, and didn't know the other authors you mention. I've been focusing more on Turkish authors lately. (I'm writing this from Edirne, Turkey.)

      posted 1 year ago. ( permalink )
    • entwined
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      Arab authors I recommend include Abdul Rahman Munif, Elias Khoury, Sahar Khalifeh, and Amin Maalouf. I haven't cared much for Yasmina Khadra. As far as Algerian, Ahlam Mosteghanemi. I guess Sonallah Ibrahim is too old to be the new voice of Egypt, but I would like to see more in his style.

      posted 1 year ago. ( permalink )
  • Dilruba Z. Ara

    Dilruba Z. Ara (edited)

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    Hello everyone,

    I am glad I've found a group of readers interested in world literature. Please check out my novel about a Bengali village girl's struggle - A LIST OF OFFENCES when you have time and write to me or connect with me on face book, and I will answer back. The book was first published by University Press Limted Dhaka and then sold to Greece and Spain. It was on best sellers list in S.America together with Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. The English rights were reverted to me this year and now it's available on Kindle and can be downloaded for free by premium members.

    I myself have read many of the books mentioned on this community to start with Naguib Mahfouz, Khaled Husseini, Arundhoty Roy and Yasmina Khadra. I oved these books.

    posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )
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    • alison d
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      I have put your book on my wish list, thank you.

      posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )
  • Matthew E Abuelo
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    Hello Everyone:

    I've been with this site now for a while but never really visited until now. I'm a poet of and author of three books, Last American Roar, Organic Hotels and The News Factory. currently I'm working on my forth book which is to date still untitled. If anyone is interested, below is a link to my most recent collection.
    '
    http://www.amazon.com/News-Factory-Notes-Dying-City/dp/1935514938/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364528651&sr=1-4&keywords=The+news+Factory

    posted 2 months ago. ( permalink )
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