Woah, this list took me a long time to scrape together. Please don’t make too much of it (as I have not read the vast majority of the books), but I wanted a place to start with titles that didn’t appear in my largely American- and Western European-heavy best books lists. This list is not perfect for many reasons, and here are a few:

1. Many great books around the world have not been translated into English or are not currently available in English. I tried to stick to those that have been translated, since I plan to read them and my French is quite rusty.
2. I meant to make a list of novels, but at times nonfiction, travel fiction, or whatever made it on without me noticing. Or maybe sometimes I did notice.
3. The writing of a region is sometimes hard to define. These lists include authors who were from the region, wrote about the region, or lived(s) in the region. It depends on how the lists that I pulled for defined their “local” authors and books.
4. It was much more difficult to find lists of classics from around the world, than contemporary literature. And some regions, it was just super difficult to find lists of any sort.
5. Some regions have more censorship and oppression than others. I hope I found my way around some if this. Minorities are likely underrepresented, and some countries are liable to be grossly misrepresented.
6. And most of all, regions are not completely distinct. I tried to come up with some sort of geographical and cultural way to lump huge sections of the world, but I was only mildly successful. Also, some books overlapped and some are probably completely on the wrong list. I did try.

Lastly, I began each regional section with an anthology or two, hoping for some sort of introduction to the literature of that region. The whole list is kicked off with a list of world anthologies. It’s a boring list, but it’s great to keep in mind before tackling a certain region.

The categories and titles below are in absolutely no particular order (except for how they popped in my head or appeared in my research.) (Also note that I did not italicize titles. I had spent way too much time on this list, as it was.)

Two last things: there are definitely spelling errors, especially in the names. I have proof-read, but I don’t know most of these names, so I am sure… I will correct as I read, which will take years. And also, some of these books are going to be much harder to get your hands on than my typical best books list. Just check E-bay, maybe a used book store, or see if your local shop can special order them for you.

WORLD

• 

  The Norton Anthology of World Literature (collection)
• Animal Tales, Sanderson (collection)
• An Anthology of World Poetry (collection)
• The Art of the Tale (collection)
• The Enlightened Heart (collection)
• Expanding Horizons (collection)
• Fragment from a Lost Diary, and Other Stories (collection)
• Gems from the World’s Best Classics (collection)
• Giant Talk (collection)
• Global Cultures (collection)
• Global Voices (collection)
• Great Short Stories of the World (collection)
• The HarperCollins World Reader (collection)
• Kavyavishwa (collection)
  
  
• Literature Across Cultures (collection)
• Literatures of Asia, Africa, and Latin American (collection)
• Longman Anthology of World Literature (collection)
• Magical Realist Fiction (collection)
• Modern Literature of the Non-Western World (collection)
• One World of Literature (collection)
• The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories (collection)
• The Oxford Book of World Stories (collection)
• Poems for the Millennium (collection)
• The Poetry of Our World (collection)
• Technicians of the Sacred (collection)
• Twenty-Five Short Stories (collection)
• The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry (collection)
• Voices International (collection)
• Voyages (collection)
• World Literature, Rosenberg (collection)
• World Poetry (collection)
• World Writers Today (collection)
• Worlds of Fiction (collection)
• The Norton Anthology of World Religions (collections)
• The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature (collection)
• The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Fiction (collection)
• The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature (collection)
• The Norton Anthology of Drama (collection)
• The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (collection)
• The Norton Anthology of Literature By Women (collection)
• The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry (collection)
• The Norton Anthology of Poetry (collection)
• The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction (collection)
• The Norton Book of Science Fiction (collection)

NORTH AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST

• 

  Tablet and Pen, Reza Aslan (anthology)
• The Ancient Near East (anthology)
• Beer in the Snooker Club, Waguih Gali
• Stealth, Sonallah Ibrahim
• Brooklyn Heights, Miral al-Tahawy
• The Heron, Ibrahim Aslan
• Bleeding of the Stone, Ibrahim al-Koni
• The Polymath, Bensalem Himmich
• For Bread Alone, Mohamed Choukri
• Women of Algiers in Their Apartment, Assia Sjebar
• The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris, Leila Marouane
• Nedjma, Kateb Yacine
• The Palm House, Tarek al-Tayeb
• Scent of Marie-Claire, Habib Selmi
• “The Way to Poppy Street,” Rachida al-Charni
• The Gorilla, Kamel Riahi
• Children of Gebelawi, Naguib Mahfouz
• In the Country of Men, Hisham Matar
• The American Granddaughter, Inaam Kachachi
• The Arch and the Butterfly, Mohammed Achari
• Azazeel, Youssef Ziedan
• The Dove’s Necklace, Raja Alem
• Frankenstein in Baghdad, Ahmed Saadawi
• Girls of Riyadh, Rajaa al-Sanea
• The Hashish Waiter, Khairy Shaladi
• The Lady from Tel Aviv, Rabai al-Mahdoun
• A Land Without Jasmine, Wajdi Al-Ahdal
• The Loved Ones, Alia Mamdouh
• The Magic of Turquiose, Mai Khaled
• Maryam’s Maze, Mansoura Ez-Eldin
• Only in London, Hanan al-Shaykh
• Spectres, Radwa Ashour
• The Tiller of Waters, Hoda Barakat
• Under the Persimmon Tree, Suzanne Fisher Staples
• The Day the Leader Was Killed, Naguib Mahfouz
• A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Housseni
• The Kite Runner, Khlaed Housseni
• Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
• Dreams of Trespass, Fatima Mernissi
• The White Castle, Orhan Panuk
• Women at Point Zero, Nawal El Saadawi
• Zaat, Son’allah Ibrahim
• An Apartment Called Freedom, Ghazi Algo
• Autumn Equinox, Jabbur Duwayhi
• The Bleeding of the Stone, Yusuf Al-Quaid
• Daughter of Damascus, Siham Tergeman
• Fate of a Cockroach and Other Plays, Al-Ha-kim Tawfiq
• Dreams of Trespass, Fatima Mernissi
• Last Chapter, Leila Abouzeid
• Memed My Hawk, Yasar Kemal
• Memory in the Flesh, Ahlan Mosteghanemi
• Only in London, Hanan Al-Shaykh
• The Other Place, Ibrahim Abdel Mequid
• The Square Moon, Ghada Samman
• War in the Land of Egypt, Yusuf Al-Qaid
• West of the Jordan, Laila Halaby
• Zayni Barakat, Gamal Al-Ghitani
• Sitt Marie Rose, Etel Adnan
• A Map of Home, Randa Jarrar
• Cinnamon, Samar Yazbek
• Under the Copenhagen Sky, Hawra al-Nadawi
• The Girl Who Fell to Earth, Sophia al-Maria
• Loves Stories on al-Asha Street, Badria al-Bishir
• Memory in the Flesh, Ahlam Mosteghanemi
• Black Suits You, Ahlam Mosteghanemi
• The Tent, Miral al-Tahawy
• The Blue Aubergine, Miral al-Tahawy
• The Forty Rules of Love, Elif Shafak
• Nidaa Khoury’s poetry
• Season of Migration to the North, Tayeb Salih
• Miramar, Naguib Mahfouz
• I Saw Ramallah, Mourid Barghouti
• Distant View of a Minaret, Alifa Rifat
• Palace Walk, Naguib Mahfouz

AFRICA

• 

  African Literature, Tejumola Olaniyan (anthology)
• Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
• A Bend in the River, V. S. Naipaul
• My Traitor’s Heart, Rian Malan
• The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
• The No. Ladies Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith
• Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee
• Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton
• The Grass is Singing, Doris Lessing
• The Bride Price, Buchi Emecheta
• A Dry White Season, Andre P. Brink
• July’s People, Nadine Gordimer
• Sosu’s Call, Meshack Asare
• Une si longe lettre, Mariama Ba
• Terra Sonambula, Mia Couto
• Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga
• The African Origins of Civilization, Cheikh Anta Diop
• L’Amour, La Fantasia, Assia Djebar
• The Cairo Trilogy, Naguib Mahfouz
• Chaka, Thomas Mafolo
• Oeuvre Poetique, Leopold Sedar Senghor
• Ake: The Years of Childhood, Wole Soyinka
• A Grain of Wheat, Ngugi wa Thiongo
• Don’t Let’s Go To the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller
• What Is the What, Valentino Achek Deng
• Life and Times of Michael K, J.M. Coetzee
• The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist, Breyten Breytenbach
• Dark Safari, John Bierman
• The Fear, Peter Godwin
• Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela
• Country of My Skull, Antjie Krog
• Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee
• Favorite African Folktales, Nelson Mandela
• Gods and Soldiers, Anthology by Penguin
• Petal of Blood, Ngugi wa Thiong’o
• The Gunny Sack, M.G. Vassanji
• The Book of Bones, Boubacar Boris Diop
• Minaret, Leila Aboulela

SOUTH ASIA (INCLUDING INDIA)

• 

  The Vintage Book of Modern Indian Literature, Chaudhuri (anthology)
• A Fine Balance, Rohinto Mistry
• The Thousand and One Nights, Scheherezade
• Heat and Dust, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
• All About H. Hatterr, G.V. Desani
• Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
• The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
• The Home and the World, Rabindranath Tagore
• The Holder of the World, Bahrati Mukherjee
• A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
• Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer, Cyrus Mistry
• The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
• Goat Days, Benyamin
• Malgudi Days, R.K. Narayan
• The Village by the Sea, Anita Desai
• The Red Carpet, Lavanya Sankaran
• The Death of Vishnu, Manil Suri
• Family Matters, Rohinton Mistry
• In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, Daniyal Mueenuddin
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Moshin Hamid
• The Wandering Falcon, Jamil Ahmad
• A Golden Age, Anam
• Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh
• Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
• The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai
• Moth Smoke, Mohsin Hamid
• The Immortals, Amit Chaudhuri
• Red Earth and Pouring Rain, Vikram Chandra
• A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
• English, August, Upamanyu Chatterjee
• A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
• India, Patrick French
• Sacred Games, Vikram Chandra
• Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
• Twilight in Deli, Ahmed Ali
• An Obedient Father, Akhil Sharma
• The Hungry Tide, Amitav Ghosh
• The Shadow Lines, Amitav Ghosh
• Fire on the Mountain, Anita Desai
• In Custody, Anita Desai
• Bumgartner’s Bombay, Anita Desai
• The Fig Tree, Aubrey Menen
• Kadambari, Banabhatta
• Anandamath, Bankim Chandra Chatterki
• Trying to Grow, Firdaus Kanga
• The Trotter-Nama, Irwin Allen Sealy
• Em and the Big Hoom, Jerry Pinto
• Nectar in a Seive, Kamal Markandaya
• Train to Pakistan, Khushwant Singh
• Dehli, Khushwant Singh
• Cuckold, Kiran Nagatar
• Ravan & Eddie, Kiran Nagatar

EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA

• 

  A Treasury of Asian Literature (anthology)

• The Dream of the Red Chamber, Cao Xueqin (Chinese)
• Rashomon, Ryunosuke Akutagawa (Japanese)
• The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (Japanese)
• Spring Snow, Yukio Mishima (Japanese)
• Diary of a Madman, Lu Xun (Chinese)
• An Insular Possession, Timothy Mo (Chinese)
• Ilustrado, Miguel Syjuco (Filipino)
• Three Sisters, Bi Feiyu (Chinese)
• The Garden of Evening Mists, Tan Twan Eng (Malaysian)
• 1Q84, Haruki Murukami (Japanese)
• Please Look After Mother, Shin Kyung-Shook (Korean)
• The Boat to Redemption, Su Tong (Chinese)
• Wolf Totem, Jiang Rong (Chinese/Mongolian)
• The Water Margin, Shi Naian (Chinese)
• Journey to the West, Wu Cheng’en (Chinese)
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guanzhong Luo (Chinese)
• The Art of War, Sun Tzu (Chinese)
• The Travels of Marco Polo, Marco Polo (Chinese-adjacent)
• Wild Swans, Jung Chang (Chinese)
• To Live, Yu Hua (Chinese)
• Red Dust, Ma Jian (Chinese)
• Tao Te-Ching (Chinese)
• Garlic Ballads, Mo Yan (Chinese)
• Dream of Ding Village, Yan Lianke (Chinese)
• A Dictionary of Maqiao, Han Shaogong (Chinese)
• Endure, Bei Dao (poetry, Chinese)
• The Tale of Genji, Marusaki Shikubu (Japanese)
• Almost Transparent Blue, Ryu Marukami (Japanese)
• Death in Midsummer and Other Stories, Yukio Mishima (short stories, Japanese)
• The Diving Pool, Yoko Ogawa (Japanese)
• Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami (Japanese)
• Kitchen, Banana Yoshimoto (Japanese)
• Kokoro, Soseki Natusume (Japanese)
• Seven Japanese Tales, Junichiro Tanizaki
• Snow Country, Yasunari Kawabata (Japanese)
• The Waiting Years, Fumiko Echi (Japanese)
• Southeast Asian History Essential Readings, D.R. Sardesai (Southeast Asia)
• The English Governess at the Siamese Court, Anna Hariette Leonowens (Thai)
• Perfume Dreams, Andrew Lam (Vietnamese)
• On the Wings of a White Horse, Oni Vatandham (Cambodian)
• The Girl in the Picture, Denise Chong (Vietnamese)
• Burmese Days, George Orwell (Burmese)
• The Gate, Francois Bizot (Cambodian)
• River of Time, John Swain (Vietnamese)
• A Tale from Bali, Vicki Baum (Indonesian)
• The Year of Living Dangerously, C.J. Koch (Indonesian)
• A Road with No End, Mochtar Lubis (Indonesian)
• Twilight in Djakarta, Mochtar Lubis (Indonesian)
• A House in Bali, Colin McPhee (Indonesian)
• The Earth of Mankind, Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Indonesian)
• Child of All Nations, Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Indonesian)
• The Girl from the Coast, Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Indonesian)
• No Harvest but Thorn, Shahnon Ahmad (Malaysian)
• The Malayan Trilogy, Anthony Burgess (Malaysian)
• The Soul of Malaya, Henri Fauconnier (Malaysian)
• Tropic Temper, James Kirkup (Malaysian)
• Temiar Jungle, John Slimming (Malaysian)
• The Pepper Garden, John Slimming (Malaysian)
• And the Rain My Drink, Han Suyin (Chinese-British-Malaysian)
• Land Below the Wind, Agnes Newton Keith (Indonesian-Malaysian)
• Three Came Home, Agnes Newton Keith (Japanese-Indonesian-Malaysian)
• When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, Cecelia Manguerra Brainard (Filipino)
• Dusk, F. Sionil Jose (Filipino)
• When the Elephants Dance, Tess Uriza Holthe (Filipino)
• The Judgement, Chart Korpjitti (Thai)
• Up Country, Nelson Demille (Vietnamese)
• Memoirs of a Pure Spring, Thu Huong Duong (Vietnamese)
• Paradise of the Blind, Thu Huong Duong (Vietnamese)
• The Quiet American, Graham Greene (Vietnamese)
• First They Killed My Father, Luong Ung (Cambodian)
• The Lost Road to Innocence, Somaly Mam (Cambodian)
• Kill Anything That Moves, Nick Turse (Vietnamese)
• Embers of War, Frederik Logevall (Vietnamese)
• Catfish and Mandala, Andrew X. Pham (Vietnamese)
• The Unwanted, Kien Nguyen (Vietnamese)
• Mr. Selden’s Map of China, Timothy Brook (Chinese)
• The Railway Man, Eric Lomax (Japanese-Singaporean)
• Midnight’s Descendents, John Keay (Southeast Asia)
• Wallpaper City Guides: Ho Chi Mihn City (guide, Vietnamese)
• The Teardrop Island, Cherry Briggs (memoir, Sri Lankan)
• Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden (Japanese)
• See my list of Japanese books (2026), HERE

EASTERN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA (INCLUDING RUSSIA)

• 

  Fairy Tales of the Russians and Other Slavs (anthology)
• Anna Karennina, Leo Tolstoy
• A Hero of Our Time, Mikhail Lermontov
• Dead Souls, Nikolat Gogol
• Oblomov, Ivan Goncharov
• Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev
• What Is To Be Done?, N.G. Churnyshevsky
• Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
• War and Peace, Lev Tolstoy
• The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Mother, Maxim Gorky
• Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin
• Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
• And Quiet Flows the Don, Mikhail Sholokhov
• Life and Fate, Vassily Grossman
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn
• The Funeral Party, Lyudmila Ulitskaya
• Lolita, Vladimir Nobokov
• The Stories of Anton Chekov, Anto Chekov
• Pale Fire, Vladimir Nobokov
• The Complete Stories of Isaac Babel, Isaac Babel
• The Master and the Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
• Cyclops, Ranko Marinkovic
• Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age, Bohumil Hrabal
• Kornel Esti, Deszo Kosztolayni
• Primeval and Other Times, Olga Tokarczuk
• Wasted Morning, Gabriela Adamasteanu
• Dictionary of the Khazars, Milorad Pavic
• The Feline Plague, Maja Novak
• FIeldwork in Ukranian Sex, Oksana Zabuzhko
• Stalin’s Nose, Rory Maclean
• Cafe Europa, Slavenka Drakulic
• The Zookeeper’s Wife, Diane Ackerman
• Geurilla Radio, Matthew Collin
• Bury Me Standing, Isabel Fonseca
• Eastern Approaches, Fitzroy Maclean
• Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Rebecca West
• Another Fool in the Balkans, Tony White
• Hidden Macedonia, Christopher Deliso
• To the Baltic with Bob, Griff Rhys Jones
• The Good Soldier Svejk, Jaroslav Hsek
• Embers, Sandor Marai
• The Gambler, Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Ashes and Diamonds, Jerry Andrzejewski
• Omon Ra, Viktor Pelevin
• The Transylvanian Trilogy, Miklos Banffy
• The Joke, Milan Kundera
• The General of the Dead Army, Ismail Kadare
• Memoir of a Russian Punk, Eduard Limonov
• The Bridge on the Drina, Ivo Andric
• The Case Worker, Gyorgy Konrad
• The Catherdral, Oles Honchar
• The Czar’s Madman, Jaan Kross
• Dictionary of the Khazars, Milorad Pavid
• The Engineer of Human Souls, Josef Skvorecky
• Le Grand Hiver, Ismail Kadare
• Insatiability, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz
• Judge on Trial, Ivan Klima
• Krabat ider Die Verwandlung der Welt, Jurij Brezan
• Miracle Workers, Slavko Janevski
• Natural Novel, Georgi Gospodinov
• Oribitor, Mircea Cartarescu
• Rivers of Babylon, Peter Pistanek
• The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch, Ladislov Klima
• They Were Counted, Miklos Banffy
• Too Loud a Solitude, Bohumil Hrabal
• The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years, Chingiz Aitmatov
• Cancer Ward, Solzhenitsyn
• This Is Not Civilisation, Robert Rosenberg
• God Lives in St. Petersburg (collection)
• The Great Game, Ahmed Rashid
• Jihad, Ahmed Rashid
• Land Beyond the River, Monica Whitlock
• The Man Who Would Be King, Ben Macintyre
• Chasing the Sea, Tom Bissell
• The Baburnama, Ẓahīr-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Bābur
• The Railway, Hamid Ismailov
• A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, Eric Newby
• Absurdistan, Gary Shteyngart
• There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

SCANDINAVIA

• 

  Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (anthology)
• The Norse Myths (anthology)
• The Prose Edda (anthology)
• Pan, Knut Hamsun
• Requiem, Peer Hultberg
• Marie Grubbe, Jens Peter Jacobsen
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larrson
• Growth of the Soil, Knut Hamsun
• Doctor Glas, Hjalmar Sodergerg
• Byen og verden, Peer Hultbery
• Kristin Lavransdatter, Sigrid Undset
• The Royal Physician’s Visit, Per Olov Enquist
• Regnspiran, Sara Lidman
• The Red Room, August Strindberg
• The Angelic Avengers, Isak Dinesen
• The Family at Gilje, Jonas Lie
• The People of Hellemyren, Amalie Skram
• Hunger, Knut Hamsun
• Witches’ Rings, Kerstin Ekman
• Melancholy, Jon Fosse
• Naive. Super, Erlend Low
• Barabbas, Par Lagerkvist
• The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Selma Lagerlof
• Juvikfolke, Olav Duun
• De dodes rige, Henrik Pontoppidan
• Fimbul: Roman, Kjartan Flogstad
• Hemsoborna, August Strindberg
• The Dwarf, Par Lagerkvist
• Independant People, Halldo Laxness
• The Half Brother, Lars Saabye Christensen
• Homo Falsus, Jan Kjaerstad
• Guide to the Underworld, Gunnar Ekelog
• Njal’s Saga, Anonymous
• My Struggle, Book One: A Death in the Family, Karl Ove Knausgard
• The Fall of the King, Johannes V. Jensen
• The Story of Olaf, Eyvind Johnson
• World Light, Halldor Laxness
• Tjardalen, Sara Lidman
• Faustus, Paavo Rintala
• Papin rouva, Juhani Aho
• Nourena nukkunut, F.E. Sillanpaa
• Egil’s Saga, Anonymous

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

• 

  The Oxford Book of Latin American Short Stories (anthology)
• The Borzoi Anthology of Latin American Literature (anthology)
• Genesis, Eduardo Galeano (Uraguay)
• Popol Vuh (Guatemala)
• Time Among the Maya, Ronald Wright (Belize, Guatemala, Mexico)
• The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende (Chile)
• Es Cuba, Lea Aschkenas (Cuba)
• Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene (Cuba)
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz (Dominican Republic)
• In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez (Dominican Republic)
• On Mexican Time, Tony Cohan (Mexico)
• True Tales from Another Mexico, Sam Quinones (Mexico)
• Yo Basta! (anthology. Mexico)
• The Time of the Hero, Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)
• The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene (Mexico)
• The Labyrinth of Solitude, Octavio Paz (Mexico)
• Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, Pablo Neruda (Chile)
• The Aleph and Other Stories, Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina)
• The Burning Plain and Other Stories, Juan Rulfo (Mexico)
• Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, Jorge Amado (Brazil)
• Hopscotch, Juli Cortazar (Argentina)
• One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia)
• Conversations in the Cathedral, Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)
• The Obscene Bird of Night, Jose Donoso (Chile)
• I, the Supreme, Augusto Roa Bastros (Paraguay)
• Kiss of the Spider Woman, Mauel Puig (Argentina)
• The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (Mexican-American)
• The Old Gringo, Carlos Fuentes (Mexico)
• Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel (Mexico)
• The Line of the Sun, Judith Ortz Cofer (Puerto Rico)
• The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Oscar Hijuelos (Cuba)
• How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Alvarez (Dominican-American)
• Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia (Cuba)
• Yo-yo Boing!, Gianinna Braschi (Puerto Rico)
• Angel, Merle Collins (Grenada/Caribbean)
• A Causal Brutality, Neil Bossoondath (Caribbean)
• Crossing the River, Caryl Phillips (Africa–>Caribbean)
• Dubbelspel, Frank Martinus Arion (Curacao/Caribbean)
• The Festival of San Joaquin, Zee Edgell (Belize)
• Fireflies, Shiva Naipaul (Trinidad and Tabago/Caribbean)
• Graveyard of the Angels, Reinaldo Arenas (Cuba)
• A House for Mr. Biswas, V.S. Naipaul (Trinidad and Tabago/Caribbean)
• In the Castle of My Skin, George Lamming (Barbados/Caribbean)
• Mr. Potter, Jamaica Kincaid (Antigua/Caribbean)
• Paradiso, Jose Lesama Lima (Cuba)
• Voices Under the Window, John Hearne (Jamaica)
• Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys (Jamaica)
• In the Castle of My Skin, George Lamming (Barbados/Caribbean)
• The Dragon Can’t Dance, Earl Lovelace (Trinidad and Tabago, Caribbean)
• Brother Man, Roger Mais (Jamaica)
• The Duppy, Anthony C. Winkler (Jamaica)
• The Dew Breaker, Edwidge Danticat (Haiti)
• Children of Sisyphus, Orlando Patterson (Jamaica)
• Divina Trace, Robert Antoni (Caribbean)
• The Palace of the Peacock, Wilson Harris (Guyana)
• Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia)
• News of a Kidnapping, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia)
• The Motorcycle Diaries, Ernesto Che Guevara (South America)
• The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho (Brazil)
• The Savage Detectives, Roberto Bolano (Mexico)
• Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina)
• Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Jorge Amado (Brazil)
• Death in the Andes, Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)
• Santa Evita, Thomas Eloy Martinez (Argentina)
• The Dark Bride, Laura Restrapo (Colombia)
• Marching Powder, Rusty Young (Bolivia)
• A Widow in Copacabana, Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza (Brazil)
• Signs Preceding the End of the World, Yuri Herrera (Mexico)
• My Father’s Ghost Is Climbing in the Rain, Patricio Pron (Argentina)
• Lost City Radio, Daniel Alarcon (Peru)
• At Night We Walk in Circles, Daniel Alarcon (Peru)
• Natural Histories, Guadalupe Nettel (short stories, Mexico)
• The Body Where I Was Born, Guadalupe Nettel (Mexico)
• The Traveler of the Century, Andres Neuman (Argentina)
• The Private Lives of Trees, Alejandro Zambra (Chile)
• Ways of Going Home, Alejandro Zambra (Chile)
• Faces in the Crowd, Valeria Luiselli (Mexico)
• The Happiest Days -or- The Affections, Rodrigo Hasbun (Bolivia)
• Birds in the Mouth, Samantha Schweblin (Argentina)
• A Long Petal of the Sea, Isabel Allende (Chile)
• See my list of Mexican books (2026), HERE

CANADA

• 

  Native Poetry in Canada (collection)
• The Stone Carvers, Jane Urquhart
• Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
• Dance Me Outside, W.P. Kinsella
• A Jest of God, Margaret Laurence
• Such Is My Beloved, Morley Callaghan
• Who Has Seen the Wind?, W.O. Mitchell
• Beautiful Losers, Leonard Cohen
• The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields
• Barney’s Version, Mordecai Richler
• Generation X, Douglas Coupland
• A Complicated Kindness, Miriam Toews
• A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
• Kamouraska, Anne Hebert
• Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, Stephen Leacock
• The Stone Angel, Margaret Laurence
• Neuromancer, William Gibson
• The Wars, Timothy Findley
• The Tin Flute, Gabrielle Roy
• Never Cry Wolf, Farley Mowat
• Life of Pi, Yann Martel *
• The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
• Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery ***
• Fifth Business, Robertson Davies
• Lives of Girls and Women, Alice Munro
• The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
• Roughing It in the Bush, Susanna Moodie
• The Golden Dog, William Kirby
• Two Solitudes, Hugh MacLennan
• The Outlander, Germaine Guevremont
• The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Mordecai Richler
• The Double Hook, Shelia Watson
• Fifth Business, Robertson Davies
• The Diviners, Margaret Laurence
• Volkswagen Blues, Jacques Poulin
• In the Skin of a Lion, Michael Ondaatje
• Green Grass, Running Water, Thomas King
• Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels
• The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, Wayne Johnston
• No Great Mischief, Alistair McLeod
• Mercy Among the Children, David Adams Richard
• A Complicated Kindness, Miria Toewes
• Lullabies for Little Criminals, Heather O’Neill
• Three Day Road, Joseph Boyden
• Half-Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan
• Anabell, Kathleen Winters
• Holding Still for as Long as Possible, Zoe Whittall
• The Bishop’s Man, Linda MacIntyre
• What the Body Remembers, Shauna Singh Baldwin
• Whale Music, Paul Quarrington

NATIVE AMERICA

• 

  American Indian Myths and Legends (collection)
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
• Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko
• The Jailing of Cecelia Capture, Janet Campbell Hale
• Bloodlines, Janet Campbell Hale
• The Woman Who Owned the Shadows, Paula Gunn Allen
• Life Is a Fatal Disease, Paula Gunn Allen
• Custer Died for Your Sins, Vine Deloria Jr.
• House Made of Dawn, N. Scott Momaday
• The Crooked Beak of Love, Dianne Niatum
• Song for the Harvester of Dreams, Dianne Niatum
• An American Monkey King in China, Gerald Vizenor
• Shrouds of White Earth, Gerald Vizenor
• Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich
• The Plague of Doves, Louise Erdrich
• Fools Crow, James Welch
• Winter in the Blood, James Welch
• The poetry of Barney Bush
• In Mad Love and War, Joy Harjo
• From Sand Creek, Simon J. Ortiz
• Poetry of Nila NorthSun
• Deep Woods to Civilisation, Charles Eastman
• The Indian Today, Charles Eastman
• Wa’kon-tah: The Osage and The White Man’s Road, John Joseph Mathews
• Claiming Breath, Diane Glancy
• Iron Woman, Diane Glancy
• Last Standing Woman, Winona laDuke
• Lost Copper, Wendy Rose
• The Translation of Dr. Appelles, David Treuer
• 1491, Charles C. Mann
• 1493, Charles C. Mann
• Rez Life, David Treuer
• Night Flying Woman, Ignatia Broker
• Moccasin Thunder, Lori Marie Carlson
• Waterlilly, Ella C. Deloria
• Stories for a Winter’s Night, Maurice Kenny
• One Good Story, That One, Thomas King
• Men on the Moon, Simon J. Ortiz
• Blue Horses Run In, Luci Tapahonso
• The Night Wanderer, Drew Hayden Taylor
• The Lesser Blessed, Richard Van Camp
• Hidden Roots, Joseph Bruchac
• Who Will Tell My Brother?, Marlene Carvell
• Sees Behind Trees, Michael Dorris
• The Birchbark House, Luise Erdrich
• As Long as the Rivers Flow, Larry Loyle
• The People Shall Continue, Luis Ortiz
• Indian Shores, Cynthia Lyteich Smith
• Rain is Not My Indian Name, Cynthia Lyteich Smith
• High Elk’s Treasure, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
• My Name is Seepeetza, Shirley Sterling
• Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko
• House Made of Dawn, Scott Momaday
• Bearheart, Gerald Vizenor
• Custer Died for Your Sins, Vine Deloria Jr.
• Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich
• Winter in the Blood, James Welch
• The Sacred Hoop, Paula Gunn Allen
• Bloodlines, Janet Campbell Hale
• How We Become Human, Joy Harjo

AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, ETC.

• 

  Australian Literature, Edelson (collection)
• The Bone People, Kerri Hulme
• Whale Rider, Witi Ihamaera
• Erewhon, Samuel Butler
• True History of the Kelly Gang, Peter Carey
• Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey
• Remembering Babylon, David Malouf
• Fly Away Peter, David Malouf
• The Transit of Venus, Shirley Hazzard
• Schindler’s Ark, Thomas Keneally
• March, Geraldine Brooks
• People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
• Breath, Tim Winton
• Monkey Grip, Helen Garner
• The Lost Dog, Michelle De Kretser
• Death of a River Guide, Richard Flanagan
• Bearded Ladies, Kate Grenville
• The Idea of Perfection, Kate Grenville
• Praise, Andrew Mcgahan
• Carpentaria, Alexis White
• Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre
• Stories of Frank Moorhouse
• Cloudstreet, Tim Winton
• The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
• A Fortunate Life, A.B. Facey
• The Harp in the South, Ruth Park
• The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay
• Jasper Jones, Craig Silvey
• The Magic Pudding, Norman Lindsay
• The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas
• The Secret River, Kate Grenville
• Picnic at Hanging Rock, Joan Lindsay