1. Snow by Orhan Pamuk. Pamuk, a Nobel Prize winning novelist, lives and writes in Turkey. This multi-layered, evocative novel is set in the provincial city of Kars (also the Turkish word for snow). A beautiful book.
2. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. This wildly inventive and immersive novel goes back and forth in time, and is set in England, Iceland, and Ireland.
3. The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist. An eerie and disturbing novel set in a dystopian version of Sweden.
4. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman. This stunning fantasy trilogy is set in a parallel universe that is very similar to Oxford, England.
5. Red Rising by Pierce Brown. My students could not put down this fast-paced YA novel set on Mars.
6. The Wind Up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. If you haven't read this biopunk science fiction novel set in Thailand, you owe it to yourself to do so. Weird and wonderful.
7. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Another wholly original work of fantasy that creates a world like no other.
8. Arcadia by Iain Pears. Partially set in a recognizable England, partially set in a possible future (maybe parallel) universe, partially set within a created world.
9. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. I heard/saw people talking about this book for the longest time, then finally took the bait. This book has everything: witches, Oxford, vampires, the Bodlieian Library, timewalking, history. Perfect.
10. Norwegian Wood and A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. Two fantastic novels that have so many layers of meaning and beauty--set in Japan.
What books have you liked or loved that are set in other countries--or other universes?
5 comments:
I loved Between Shades of Gray. It's set in Lithuania and very personal to me since my maternal grandparents immigrated from that country.
@bermudaonion-I need to read that book. Some of my students read it last year and were blown away.
Some I love and some I need to try! Especially Mieville. I've never read him!
@Andi-You have to read Perdido Street Station. It is unlike anything else I have read.
Oh, I never thought of other worlds for my list!
Post a Comment