The Reader's Atlas

I'm reading a book from every country of the world. Each week I write about the country, author, and book I am reading.

[readersatlas]

Bangladesh - A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam

This week I read A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam from Bangladesh. This book tells the story of Bangladesh’s war for independence as seen through the eyes of Rehana Haque. Anam follows Haque from the death of her husband decades before the war through her children’s involvement in the war itself. Anam weaves a story of love and torture, death and hope as a new nation rises on the world stage.

Before reading this book, I knew exactly nothing about Bangladesh’s war for independence. As I have learned, the region was unstable after the British left and eventually tensions between Pakistani leadership in the west and the people in the east led to all-out war. Anam’s work of historical fiction might do so well at capturing the time because she loosely based the story on her own grandmother’s story during the war. There is something fitting in having a story about family originate in the telling of the author’s own family stories. I recommend the book unequivocally for anyone who enjoys historical fiction or who is at all interested in learning about the region.

From one of the most populous countries to one of the least populous, next week I will be reading The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord of Barbados. 

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Bahrain - QuixotiQ by Ali Al Saeed

Well, it was bound to happen, this week I ran across my first dud. This week I read Ali Al Saeed’s QuixotiQ which was the only Bahraini book that I could find in English. Several other literary travelers I discovered online chose QuixotiQ as their book for Bahrain. I was hoping to find something different to read, but, unfortunately, it seems there is not much Bahraini work in translation at this time. An unexpected side effect of this quest is that I have become aware of just how much literature never reaches the United States and, as a byproduct, I have become a big supporter of the efforts to get more works translated.

QuixotiQ follows two young men and a young woman who all like in a town called Okay. The three are all down on their luck with troubled pasts that they are trying to make sense of. As the story unfolds, the three fall even further until the story comes to an anticlimactic climax where nothing really happens and nothing is really resolved.

This was a tough read. I understand that English is Saeed’s second language, but there are some phrases in the book that jolt the reader out of the narrative. I was particularly tickled with the un-ironic description of an event as a “shenanigan.” I really don’t enjoy giving a negative review. I’m sure Saeed worked very hard on this story and writing a novel in a second language is an impressive feat. That being said, I can’t say that I recommend QuixotiQ nor would I seek out anything else by Saeed unless I knew it was writing in his native tongue and translated.

Positive or negative, that is another country down! This coming week, I’ll be diving into A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam of Bangladesh

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Bahamas - Thine is the Kingdom by Garth Buckner

This week, I read Thine Is the Kingdom by Garth Buckner. The Bahamas were a tough country to find books for. Luckily, I found Ann Morgan’s amazing Blog about her own literary journey around the world. This quest has been an awesome process of discovering fellow readers and learning from their adventures!

Thine is the Kingdom is the story of Gavin Blake, a white Bahamian, who is attempting to claim his citizenship after years of traveling. Blake’s father was American and under Bahamian law that makes Blake American despite where he was born or who his mother was. As he attempts to gain acceptance in his home, Blake becomes involved with both wealthy outsiders and poor native Bahamians. More and more Blake sees the similarities in the corruption of the Bahamian criminal elements and the rich people that he has to work for.

Buckner’s book was a good read. He provides excellent descriptions of Blake’s Bahamas. From the Bahamas you see if you arrive on a cruise ship to the Bahamas you see if you are born to the Bahamian lower class. He gives the reader a true sense of the place, which is exactly what I hoped this quest would provide. I also enjoyed Buckner’s insights into the emotions of the book’s characters. Sometimes, characters seem to act more in service to the plot rather than being true to their character. With Buckner, he always explains emotionally why his characters deviate from who they are supposed to be. It made for an enjoyable read!

Next week, we head east to Bahrain with QuixotiQ by Ali Al Saeed. 

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Azerbaijan - Ali and Nino by Kurban Said

This week I read the Azerbaijani novel Ali and Nino by Kurban Said. Ali and Nino is a story of romance, of nationalism, and a recounting of the geopolitics of Azerbaijan in the early 20th Century all rolled into one. The story centers on the relationship between the titular Ali, an Islamic Azerbaijani, and Nino, a Christian Georgian. The two meet and fall in love in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. Being from separate religions, the two face many difficulties reconciling their relationship with their families and then learning how to live together as husband and wife having come from such different backgrounds. Added to this challenging situation is the looming presence of WWI and the Bolshevik invasion. Ali and Nino feel the constant pull between East and West, as Azerbaijan as a nation does. Eventually, time runs out for the couple and the country. Nino flees with their daughter and Ali dies fighting to defend his country.

Ali and Nino is an excellent novel. What made it really stand out for me, is the strong sense of Azerbaijan the book gives. The country is not just a backdrop for the story. Azerbaijan is as much a character as Ali or Nino. The country pervades the story. Ali’s first fight is for Nino, but his last fight is for Azerbaijan. The novel shows how Azerbaijan is a crossroads and how that puts pressures on those who love the country. Bordered by Russia, Iran, and Turkey, Azerbaijan during Ali and Nino’s time was being pulled in different directions by Turkish, Persian, and soon to be Soviet forces. The description of Azerbaijan presented in Ali and Nino feels just as relevant today as it did 100 years ago.

One other note of interest about Ali and Nino is that who exactly wrote it is in dispute. While the book is published with Kurban Said listed as the author, this is a nom de plume. The most accepted opinion is that Lev Nussimbaum is the likely author, but several other authors have been put forth and accepted as potential writers. It seems somehow right that a book so full of ideas about accepting people with different beliefs and nationalities should be left without a set author who could be claimed by one group over another. Whoever Kurban Said may have been, they wrote a magnificent book that brought Azerbaijan alive for me.

This marks the end of the countries starting with the letter A! Next week, I will continue on with Thine is the Kingdom by Garth Bruckner of the Bahamas.

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An Unavoidable Interruption

I'm sorry to say there's no new Reader's Atlas post this week. I spent most of the week in the hospital with my mom. Happily, everything turned out okay! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get to this week's book. So, next week I will be diving into Azerbaijan with Ali and Nino!

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Austria - The Bone Man by Wolf Haas

This week, I read The Bone Man by Wolf Haas of Austria. In selecting my books for this quest, I’ve tried to vary the type of book as much as possible. Last week’s book, Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, was traditional literary fiction. The Bone Man, on the other hand, is probably best classified as a tongue-in-cheek detective novel. It served as a nice change of pace and was an interesting introduction to Austria!

The Bone Man follows private detective Simon Brenner as he tries to solve a murder in a fried chicken restaurant. As silly as that sounds, the previous sentence really presents things much too seriously. Brenner is called in because the bones of a man were found mixed in with the leftover chicken bones from the restaurant. Apparently, the police got nowhere with the case and really most people, Brenner included, only seem passingly interested in the appearance of this dead body. The story meanders along, Sherlock Holmes Brenner is not, until the secrets of the little town of Klöch begin to unravel and the truth of what happened becomes clear.

Haas tells a decent mystery, but what really made The Bone Man stand out to me was the style. Reading The Bone Man is a bit like having the neighborhood gossip tell you a story. The narrator wanders all over the place in the telling, adding little bits of backstory, providing explanations of people’s behavior, and adding personal commentary on what is happening. This unusual narrative style means that a story about multiple murders and cannibalism ends up feeling like listening to your great aunt tell you about the time she got that great deal at the church rummage sale. I don’t mean to imply it is boring, it was actually a very entertaining read, just that this is not your typical detective novel. I do recommend The Bone Man with the caveat that you might want to read an excerpt first to be sure the style is to your liking.

Another country explored and another excellent read. Next week is Azerbaijan with Ali and Nino by Kurban Said. Thanks for stopping by!

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Australia - Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

This week’s book, Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, is a wonderful Australian family saga. Cloudstreet follows the Lamb and the Pickles families for twenty years as they live together at number one Cloud Street in Perth, Australia. In many ways, the families couldn’t be more different. The Lamb family tends to be industrious, sober, and believers in God, while the Pickles are lazier, prone to drunkenness and gambling, and believers in luck. Despite these differences, both families have suffered losses and have to live together to get by. Over the course of the story, the two families slowly grow together and the united families become central to all of the character’s lives.

Cloudstreet was an interesting read for me. Generally speaking, I’m not a huge fan of family dramas. Despite this, Cloudstreet drew me in. I think a big part of this was Winton’s writing. He does an amazing job of painting a picture of post-World War Two Perth. As someone who has never been to Australia, it was fascinating to discover Perth through Winton and his characters. Added to this is Winton’s obvious passion for the magic of everyday life. There are supernatural things like ghosts and magical creatures in the story, but Winton seems as dedicated to the powerful magic of family and love. Overall, I very much enjoyed the book and I would recommend it to anyone looking for something to read on Australia. As with many books I have read as part of this quest, Cloudstreet is not a book I would normally choose to read. Thankfully, this quest is pushing me out of my normal comfort zone and providing me with wonderful stories like this!

It’s hard to believe that I am almost through the “A” countries! This week I will be reading The Bone Man by Wolf Haas of Austria. Hope you all have a great week!

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Armenia - Armenian Golgotha by Grigoris Balakian

This week’s book, Armenian Golgotha by Grigoris Balakian, was a major change of pace from last week’s Borges fantasies. Armenian Golgotha is the first purely non-fiction book I have read has part of my quest. It is the story of the Armenian genocide conducted by the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Balakian attempts to tell his own story, as well as the larger story of what was happening to Armenians across the empire. Balakian shares how he was arrested with hundreds of others in Constantinople and then force marched across the country with most of the Armenian population. Death in the form of starvation, sickness, and blatant murder was ever present for Balakian and his people. Eventually, Balakian manages to escape and begins more than a year on the run evading his Ottoman captors. In a reverse of things to come, several German engineers played key roles in helping Balakian avoid his pursuers.

There is no way to read Balakian’s story and not think of the similarities to the Holocaust to come a generation later. While their styles are different, reading Balakian felt like reading something from Elie Weisel. These stories are always horrifying in the truths they reveal. They are also incredibly important because of the reminder that we must always be vigilant to keep these things from happening again.

In doing a little research after finishing the book, I found that determining the exact numbers involved in the genocide is difficult. Apparently, the Ottomans did not have the Nazi penchant for bookkeeping. Despite this, census information before and after the genocide show that the Armenian population was reduced by 50%-90% depending on which sources are used. In an odd coincidence, some of the best documentation of the genocide for the rest of the world came from Max Scheubner-Richter who was a stationed in Turkey as a representative of Germany. By all accounts, Scheubner-Richter was disturbed by the genocide he witnessed, but he eventually went on to make friends with a young Adolf Hitler and became the political mind behind Hitler’s rise to power. Scheubner-Richter was murdered in 1923, so it is hard to know if he was aware of what Hitler would become or if he actively used his knowledge of what happened to Balakian and his people as a roadmap for Hitler’s own genocide.

This book is not a light or easy read by any stretch of the imagination, but I think it is an important book to read. Despite being published originally in 1922, the book did not make it into English until 2009. I think it is an important book because it covers events that are little known here. Maybe if enough people read about what has happened to people like Balakian, we can prevent the next genocide from happening.

Once again, I am skipping forward next week because I have not yet found a book for Aruba. So, next week I will be reading Australian writer Tim Winton’s novel Cloudstreet. 

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Argentina - Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges

This week’s book was Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges. I first heard about Borges when reading the book Cabinet of Curiosities by Guillermo Del Toro. Curiosities is a collection of notebooks and sketches detailing the development of Del Toro’s work. Del Toro is a filmmaker whose work and imagination I greatly admire. So, when he mentioned how much he loved reading Borges, along with many other fantastic Latin American authors, I took note. Undertaking this quest has given me the perfect opportunity to finally dive into Borges imagination and explore.

Unlike the other books I have read so far, Ficciones is a collection of seventeen short stories instead of a novel. The stories of Ficciones range from “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” which details the creation of a fictional land and its addition to encyclopedias to create a belief in the place among readers, to a variety of reviews of fictional books to “Death and the Compass,” in which a detective attempts to solve a string of murders connected to the four letter true name of God. The stories feature many common themes and include elements such as labyrinths prominently.

In explaining the philosophy of the fictional people in “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” Borges uses the phrase “language, with its derivatives – religion, literature, and metaphysics.” To me, this little snippet of a sentence encapsulates much of Borges' view of the world. Many of his stories explore the power of language, its ability to create in people’s minds a belief in an entirely fictional land in the case of Tlön. Words and ideas are the most powerful elements of Borges’ stories. As someone who has spent more time than I care to admit contemplating the idea that we have no way to prove reality beyond our own minds, Borges work is really right up my alley. It is very easy to see how Borges would have influenced Del Toro to create a film like Pan’s Labyrinth and Christopher Nolan to create Inception. If these types of movies appeal to you then I highly recommend taking a look at Borges work.

Next week, I am reading Armenia via Armenian Golgotha by Grigoris Balakian. Thanks for stopping by and checking in on my journey!

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Antigua - Unburnable by Marie-Elena John

This week’s book was Unburnable by Marie-Elena John of Antigua. The book tells the story of Lillian Baptiste’s return to her childhood home of Dominica and her search for her family’s history. The story moves back and forth through time following Lillian in the present and her mother and grandmother in the past. Eventually, the past is uncovered though the ending is left hanging for the reader to decide.

I enjoyed the book overall, but what really stood out for me was the interesting island history that John weaves into the tale. In the chapters that follow Lillian’s grandmother, there are all kinds of detail about island life and the islands during World War II. Just as interesting is the blending of African and Western cultures. John shows how some African cultures in the New World used Catholicism as a means of meshing old religion onto new beliefs. The stories of Lillian’s grandmother as a kind of medicine woman were my favorite parts of the book.

I think I have been pretty lucky so far. I have genuinely enjoyed all of the books up to this point. Unburnable keeps that streak alive for another week. I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning about island culture or about West African culture at its source, on the islands, and in America.

Continuing to move forward, this week I will be reading Ficciones by Argentina’s Jorge Luis Borges. This book is different from anything I’ve read so far and I’m excited to dive in!

[readersatlas]

Angola - Good Morning Comrades by Ondjaki

This week, I read Good Morning Comrades by Ondjaki of Angola. Set in the early 1990s, Comrades is a story of growing up during the post-independence/communist/civil war era in Angola’s capital city. The story is narrated by Ndalu, a young Angolan boy, who simply reports on his life and the events of the day. We follow Ndalu as he talks with his family’s cook who believes things were better under Portuguese rule, takes lessons from his Cuban communist teachers, and visits with family both from Angola and from Portugal. The story does not really have a traditional narrative arc. Instead, it feels like a snapshot of a period of Ndalu’s life.

The real strength of Good Morning Comrades is in Ndalu’s matter of fact presentation of the world around him. There are things that are common to him that jump out at an outside reader. At one point, Ndalu is asked to prepare and read a May Day speech on the radio, but when he gets there his speech is taken and he is given a speech prepared by the government to read instead. As a child, Ndalu does not question this, but for the reader it reveals a lot. When Ndalu’s aunt comes to visit from Portugal, Ndalu is incredulous that in Portugal people are allowed to buy as much food as they want instead of relying on government-controlled ration cards. Again, while his childlike focus is on all the chocolate his aunt has, Ondjaki shows us more of Ndalu’s world. Ndalu rarely questions his world, like most children, but even the simple details, like the fact that his family is clearly better off than his teachers or some of the families of his friends despite living in a communist society, are very informative.

I’m torn on Good Morning Comrades because the language used at times took me out of the story, but Ondjaki’s overall creation is exceptional. Some of it might come down to translation and some might be stylistic choices by Ondjaki to build Ndalu’s perspective. I’m not sure, but, while it was an easy read, it was not an immersive read. At the same time, when I look at the book as a whole I think it is magnificent. Ondjaki manages to take what is almost a little boy’s journal and use it to reveal huge amounts about Angola and the larger world. Not much happens in the book from a plot standpoint, but I know so much more about Angola than I did before and I think Ondjaki has created a main character that feels like a real little boy. For anybody even the slightest bit interested, I would say give it a read. It might have some micro level issues, but the macro view is excellent and, at 120 pages, it is well worth the time it takes to read.

I have yet to find a book by an author from Anguilla, if you know of one your suggestion is appreciated, so I will be skipping ahead to Antigua. Next week’s book is Unburnable by Marie-Elena John. Thanks for stopping by!

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Algeria - The Earthquake by Tahir Wattar

This week, I read The Earthquake by Algerian writer Tahir Wattar. The story follows Sheikh Abdelmajid Boularwah as he travels to find his distant relatives. Boularwah wants to sign his property over to his relatives so that it will not be confiscated by the government.

In Boularwah, Wattar has created an Algerian Ebenezer Scrooge. He is a man who values money above all things, though if you asked he would tell you God is above all, and he hates those who do not have money or who would take his money from him. Boularwah goes so far as to pray for civil unrest to claim all those who would take from him and leave Algeria populated only by the wealthy upper class. Boularwah is not a nice man, but everywhere he looks he sees the disruption of what he feels is the proper order of things.

Boularwah’s inner thoughts and outer actions reveal a schism that Wattar saw in Algerian society. At the time Wattar wrote The Earthquake, Algeria was struggling with finding its footing after gaining independence from France. Conflicting ideas of colonialism and independence, secularism and Islam, and communism and capitalism warred to become the ideological core of the newly independent country. Wattar uses Boularwah to illustrate the dangers of many of these ideas. Boularwah claims to be a devout man, but he is filled with hate. The country is independent, but the lack of status quo has left things in turmoil. Communal rules are meant to benefit all, but men like Boularwah circumvent the laws and the cities are filled with the poor and degenerate.

Algeria is the 10th largest country in the world, and the largest in the Arab world, so I think there is great value in understanding a portion of the history that has created the country we see today. While I would not list The Earthquake as an easy read, it does present an interesting picture of the struggle for identity that Algeria was facing at the time. Wattar’s book also seems to have predicted some of the social violence that would come to Algeria in more recent decades. With the civil war over, hopefully, a new era of cooperation will allow Algeria to flourish.

Next week, the journey continues with Angola. I am reading Good Morning Comrades by Ondjaki. I would love any suggestions you might have for books to read from around the world! Right now, I am especially searching for something to read from Anguilla and Aruba. Thanks for your input and for stopping by!

[readersatlas]

Andorra - The Phaeton Report by Albert Salvadó

“‘I thought you were searching after knowledge,’ he replied.

‘I meant knowledge about something.’

‘No, no,’ I heard him repeat….‘Knowledge about something is one thing but you said you were just seeking knowledge. There is a huge difference.”’

This quote, from the early chapters of Andorran writer Albert Salvadó’s book The Phaeton Report, sums up the experience of reading the book quite well.

The Phaeton Report follows a writer of historical fiction, much like Salvadó himself, who undertakes a quest to learn about the Universal Scientific Community (USC) and the secrets of Earth’s true history. The writer’s research wanders from history and mythology to astronomy and geology. Over the course of the novel, with periodic assistance from members of the USC, the writer assembles a new history of Noah’s flood based on human science gone wrong.

The story really is a writer recounting his research. It seems like that would be incredibly boring, but Salvadó manages to infuse the story with such frantic energy that it forces you to keep reading. Like the narrator of the story, I wanted to keep going to see what the next discovery would be. By the end, Salvadó built a framework that lets him start a discussion about the dangers of human innovation without thought for consequences and the current state of the environment. While the story has a clear message, Salvadó avoids seeming preachy by telling a compelling tale.

The book itself did not teach me anything about Andorra, but I feel like the unique blend of ideas present in The Phaeton Report is fitting for a nation surrounded on all sides by much larger and better-known countries. Andorra, like Salvadó’s novel, is an unexpectedly unique experience.

My book for Algeria finally arrived, it took a slow boat from the UK. So, this coming week, I will be reading The Earthquake by Algerian writer Tahir Wattar.

[readersatlas]

Albania - The Successor by Ismail Kadare

This week’s book was The Successor by Ismail Kadare of Albania, winner of the first Man Booker International Prize. Much like Afghanistan last week, I knew very little about Albania going into this week. Honestly, I probably could not have done better than pointing to its general vicinity on the map. So, it was with hopes of correcting this glaring ignorance that I started Kadare’s book.

The Successor tells the story of the death of the successor slated to be the next leader of Albania. The Successor is found dead of a gunshot wound in his home and immediately questions arise as to whether he committed suicide or if he was murdered by order of the Guide, the current leader of the country. Kadare tells the story of that night and the following days from the point of view of several different characters including the Successor’s family, the architect of the Successor’s home, and other party members. Everyone has their own theory of what happened and everyone lives in fear of what may happen in the future. The Guide, and his ability to destroy lives on a whim, looms over every page of the story. In the end, the death remains a mystery that cannot be solved.

In reading about the book, I learned that it was a fictionalization of true events. In 1981, Mehmet Shehu, who had recently been named successor to Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha, was found dead of a gunshot wound. As in the book, the official cause of death was suicide, a crime which led to Shehu being posthumously labeled an enemy of the state, but rumors of murder abounded. Hoxha had much of Shehu’s family imprisoned and no full explanation of the events surrounded Shehu’s death was ever given.

The Successor was a quick read and I very much enjoyed it. Kadare does a great job of presenting the danger inherent in everyday life in a society such as that of 1980s Albania. Kadare would certainly understand the risks involved as he worked with Hoxha’s wife, a woman as dangerous as her husband by all accounts, for a time and eventually had to flee Albania to avoid punishment for his writing. I started the week feeling much like the western intelligence organizations presented in The Successor, ignorant about Albania and lost as to what the events there mean. Luckily, Kadare’s book has given me a little more insight into his culture and the history of his people.

Due to an unexpected shipping delay, I am going to jump ahead next week to read The Phaeton Report by Albert Salvado of Andorra. Thanks for stopping by and if you have a book suggestion please send it my way!

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Afghanistan - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

I kicked off my literary tour of the globe this week with The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini from Afghanistan. Prior to this week, the extent of my knowledge about Afghanistan was that it has long been a crossroads between East and West and that America has been fighting there for the last decade. Of Afghan history, I knew almost nothing and of the experiences of the Afghan people I knew even less. Happily, Hosseini’s excellent book helped me rectify some of that.

The Kite Runner is the story of Amir and is broken up into three parts, his childhood in Kabul, his early adulthood in California, and his eventual return to and escape from Afghanistan. Amir is a well to do boy who lives with his father, their servant, and the servant’s son (Hassan). The servants belong to an ethnic minority group called Hazaras. As with many minority groups the world over, the Hazaras are treated as second class citizens by the mainstream Afghanis. This presents a problem for Amir as Hassan is his closest friend, but his higher social status means he should not be friends with a Hazara. On top of the societal pressure, Amir is also conflicted over feelings of jealousy when his less than supportive father praises Hassan. These conflicts come to a head when, after helping Amir win a kite fighting contest and retrieving the final kite for him, Hassan is attacked and raped by local bullies. Amir sees everything and does nothing to help. His guilt leads him to betray his friend and make Hassan and his father move out.

Soon after, the Soviets begin their invasion of Afghanistan and Amir and his father are forced to leave the country. The pair endures a harrowing trip to Pakistan where they are able to safely travel to America.

In 2001, Amir hears unexpectedly from one of his father’s friends who asks him to come to Pakistan and hints that there may be a way to redeem himself for his childhood actions with Hassan. In Pakistan, Amir is overwhelmed to learn that, not only has Hassan been killed by the Taliban, Hassan was actually Amir’s half-brother and his now orphaned son is in Afghanistan. After conflicts with the Taliban, the bullies of his past, and American bureaucracy, Amir manages to rescue Hassan’s son and bring him home to America.

The Kite Runner was an excellent read. I knew nothing about the book going in, so the story really surprised me. I was really struck by how well Hosseini managed to walk the thin line of letting Amir make huge, some might say unforgivable, mistakes without making him unlikeable. Amir’s tacit involvement in the attack on Hassan and his actions afterwards to drive Hassan away are despicable, but Hosseini lets us see these actions through the mind of a confused, scared, and guilt-ridden little boy that Amir is. Hassan and his son Sohrab are the closest things to heroes in the story and Amir seems to understand that as much as we readers do.

As for the country itself, The Kite Runner really reinforced the idea that Afghanistan has faced one invasion after another. From Alexander the Great to the Mongols to the Soviets and now the United States, the country has weathered some of the greatest military forces in history. Despite all of this, Hosseini paints a picture of a people who are devoted to their community and who work to support one another. I definitely respect that. The Afghan characters also struggle with intense feelings of obligation to tradition. Sometimes they are stifled by it and other times they seem to find comfort in falling back on tradition. Regardless, it is an interesting facet of the culture.

I thoroughly enjoyed this week’s reading and Hosseini helped me understand his country a little better! Next week, I am heading to Albania via The Successor by Ismail Kadare. Thanks for stopping by!  

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My Quest

In early May 2015, I read The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau. The book is all about taking on quests based on the things you enjoy. Guillebeau, for example, traveled to every country in the world. Others ran dozens of marathons in a year, walked across the United States, or committed to taking, editing, and posting a million pictures. The unusual things they achieved and the things they learned along the way were fascinating to me. So, I decided to undertake a quest of my own.

My quest is to read a book from every country of the world. I may never visit every corner of the globe, but, with this quest, I hope that I can gain a better understanding of all the amazing and diverse cultures out there.

My plan is to read one book a week and share what I have learned.

Where possible, I plan to read novels by authors residing in each country or who spent a substantial portion of their life there.

Considering I can only currently read in English, something I may have to correct to complete this quest, I understand that I may have to make some exceptions along the way.

The current list of books I plan to read can be found HERE. I tried to make my list of countries as broad as possible so I could experience more cultures. The inclusion or exclusion of an area is not at all meant to be a political statement. I just want to read good books!

Any book suggestions are greatly appreciated and can be submitted HERE or you can come say hi on Twitter or Facebook! I'm sure the only way I will be able to complete this quest will be with input from the online community of readers and writers!

Thank you for stopping by and sharing in my literary voyage!

Week one starts tomorrow with The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini from Afghanistan.