#WorldBookNight is the annual celebration on April 23 of books & reading that brings people from all backgrounds together to revel in the joy of reading & to inspire others to read more.
We also want to encourage folks to read more books written by authors from other countries so gathered together this list of 15 global reads across genres. These books are perfect for #WorldBookNight & the associated 7-8PM #ReadingHour as they all focus on short reads: novellas, short stories, flash fiction, a graphic novel, & poetry. Whether you’re able to read the shorter books in their entirety or specific entries within the books of short stories, you’ll feel a sense accomplishment during #ReadingHour.
Happy reading!
creepy, funny flash fiction from PerU
Renowned writer, philologist, and critic Miguel Garcia Posada says of this book: “It’s not a stretch to consider it one of the most notable revelations of recent Latin American literature.”
A slim book, Grave Goods contains 98 pieces of flash fiction from one of Peru's best contemporary writers. While Fernando Iwasaki's stories—like all good horror stories—are intended to disconcert his readers, they are also often humorous in nature. Some re-create or re-envision urban legends, some come from dreams, and some are pure inventions of Iwasaki's remarkable mind.
This is not a book of gore. Rather, the majority of these stories are creepy with touches of humor and twists at the end that will make you gasp or laugh in surprise and shock. It takes true talent to convey a solid micro-story and these are incredibly rich and well written for all their brevity. The author leaves much to the imagination which somehow adds more to the story and ups the creep factor.
Vignettes of South African lives
These stories from the closing days of apartheid rule in South Africa won the Noma Award, Africa's highest literary award, and announced Njabulo Ndebele as an assured and impressive literary voice. He has gone on to become one of the most powerful voices for cultural freedom on the whole of the African continent today.
Ndebele evokes township life with humor and subtlety, rejecting the image of black South Africans as victims and focusing on the complexity and fierce energy of their lives. “Our literature,” says Ndebele, “ought to seek to move away from an easy preoccupation with demonstrating the obvious existence of oppression. It exists. The task is to explore how and why people can survive under such harsh conditions.”
The stories in Fools and Other Stories deal with the formative experiences of growing up in a Johannesburg township during the Apartheid years. “Fools,” the title story of the collection, is a tale of generations. Zamani, a disgraced middle-aged teacher and Zani, a young student activist, are inadvertently bound together by affection and hostility in an intense and unpredictable relationship. Finding each other means finding the common ground of their struggle. It also means re-examining their lives—and, notably, their relationships with women.
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A darkly, comic novella from Mexico
While more of a novella than a novel at 97 pages, this book was shortlisted for the 2011 Guardian First Book Award and the awarded the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize.
“A pint-size novel about innocence, beastliness and a child learning the lingo in a drug wonderland. Funny, convincing, appalling, it's a punch-packer for a book so small.” —Ali Smith, noted author
Tochtli lives in a palace. He loves hats, samurai, guillotines, and dictionaries, and what he wants more than anything right now is a new pet for his private zoo: a pygmy hippopotamus from Liberia. But Tochtli is a child whose father is a drug baron on the verge of taking over a powerful cartel, and Tochtli is growing up in a luxury hideout that he shares with hit men, prostitutes, dealers, servants, and the odd corrupt politician or two. Down the Rabbit Hole, a masterful and darkly comic first novel, is the chronicle of a delirious journey to grant a child's wish.
3 works of historical fiction from South Korea
“Ch'oe Yun is a Korean author known for her breathtaking versatility, subversion of authority, and bold exploration of the inner life. Readers celebrate her creative play with fantasy and admire her deep engagement with trauma, history, and the vagaries of remembrance.
In this collection's title work, ‘There a Petal Silently Falls,’ Ch'oe explores both the genesis and the aftershocks of historical outrages such as the Kwangju Massacre of 1980, in which a reported 2,000 civilians were killed for protesting government military rule. The novella follows the wanderings of a girl traumatized by her mother's murder and strikes home the injustice of state-sanctioned violence against men and especially women. ‘Whisper Yet’ illuminates the harsh treatment of leftist intellectuals during the years of national division, at the same time offering the hope of reconciliation between ideological enemies. The third story, ‘The Thirteen-Scent Flower,’ satirizes consumerism and academic rivalries by focusing on a young man and woman who engender an exotic flower that is coveted far and wide for its various fragrances.
Elegantly crafted and quietly moving, Ch'oe Yun's stories are among the most incisive portrayals of the psychological and spiritual reality of post-World War II Korea. Her fiction, which began to appear in the late 1980s, represents a turn toward a more experimental, deconstructionist, and postmodern Korean style of writing, and offers a new focus on the role of gender in the making of Korean history.”
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A series of political posts from Saudi Arabia
“I spent three years writing these articles for you. I am in prison. I was tortured. My wife and our three children had to flee our country. My family and I endured all these harsh struggles simply because I spoke my mind. We went through those hardships for the sake of every letter written in this book.”
Raif Badawi, a Saudi Arabian blogger, shared his thoughts on politics, religion, and liberalism online. He was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, ten years in prison, and a fine of 1 million Saudi Riyal, over a quarter of a million U.S. dollars. This politically topical polemic gathers together Badawi’s pivotal texts.
He expresses his opinions on life in an autocratic-Islamic state under the Sharia and his perception of freedom of expression, human and civil rights, tolerance and the necessary separation of state and religion.
“This slim, but fascinating and informative volume clearly brings home the consequences of our benign neglect of the Saudi totalitarian situation.” —Library Journal
“Raif Badawi's is an important voice for all of us to hear, mild, nuanced, but clear. His examination of his culture is perceptive and rigorous. Of course he must be saved from the dreadful sentence against him and the appalling conditions of his imprisonment. But he must also be read, so that we understand the struggle within Islam between suffocating orthodoxy and free expression, and make sure we find ourselves on the right side of that struggle.” —Salman Rushdie
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Beautifully written sci fi stories from Finland
Mindblowingly inventive and beautifully written short stories from the most exciting new name in sci fi.
Hannu Rajaniemi exploded onto the sci fi scene with the publication of his first novel The Quantum Thief. Acclaimed by fellow authors and brilliantly reviewed everywhere, he swiftly established a reputation as an author who could combine extraordinary cutting edge science with beautiful prose and deliver it all with wit, warmth and a delight in the fun of storytelling.
It is exactly these qualities that are showcased in this his first collection of short stories. Drawn from anthologies, magazines and online publications and brought together in book form for the first time in this collection here is a collection of seventeen short stories that range from the lyrical to the bizarre, from the elegiac to the impish. It is a collection that shows one of the great new imaginations in sci fi having immense fun.
“A further demonstration of how science fiction is expanding the possibilities of literature and human experience.” ―Geek Chocolate
A charming, subtly political novella from Angola
Written by “one of the most important writers in the history of African literature” who has received numerous awards including the José Saramago Prize, & Grinzane Prize in addition to his inclusion as one of only 39 African writers in Africa39 as well as a the Guardian’s “Top Five African Writers”.
Luanda, Angola, 1990. Ndalu is a normal twelve-year old boy in an extraordinary time and place. Like his friends, he enjoys laughing at his teachers, avoiding homework and telling tall tales.
But Ndalu's teachers are Cuban, his homework assignments include writing essays on the role of the workers and peasants, and the tall tales he and his friends tell are about a criminal gang called Empty Crate which specializes in attacking schools. Ndalu is mystified by the family servant, Comrade Antonio, who thinks that Angola worked better when it was a colony of Portugal, and by his Aunt Dada, who lives in Portugal and doesn't know what a ration card is.
In a charming voice that is completely original, Good Morning Comrades tells the story of a group of friends who create a perfect childhood in a revolutionary socialist country fighting a bitter war. But the world is changing around these children, and like all childhood's Ndalu's cannot last. An internationally acclaimed novella, already published in half a dozen countries, Good Morning Comrades is an unforgettable work of fiction.
“A charming novella, subtle in its examination of the political difficulties of a small, poorly known African nation. Well recommended.” —Damian Kelleher
Witty yet accessible poetry from a Nobel Prize-winner from poland
One of Europe’s greatest recent poets is also its wisest, wittiest, and most accessible. Nobel Prize–winner Wislawa Szymborska draws us in with her unexpected, unassuming humor. Her elegant, precise poems pose questions we never thought to ask. “If you want the world in a nutshell,” a Polish critic remarks, “try Szymborska.” But the world held in these lapidary poems is larger than the one we thought we knew.
Carefully edited by her longtime, award-winning translator, Clare Cavanagh, the poems in Map trace Szymborska’s work until her death. Of the approximately 250 poems included, nearly 40 are newly translated; 13 represent the entirety of the poet’s last collection never before published in English.
“Nobel laureate Szymborska’s gorgeous posthumous collection interweaves insights into the suffering experienced during WWII and the Cold War brutalities of Stalin with catchy, realistic, colloquial musings. Her poems are revelatory yet rooted in the everyday. She writes about living with horrors, and about ordinary lives: people in love, at work, enjoying a meal. This is a brilliant and important collection.” —Booklist
”Szymborska has her impressive poetic repertoire on full display in this volume [which] reveals her development over seven decades, including a gradual departure from end rhyme and the sharpening of her wit. As multitudinous as Whitman, she conveyed deep feeling through vivid, surreal imagery and is able to revive clichéd language by reconnecting it in startling ways. Odes, critiques, and persona poems are just a few of the forms her writing took. Yet, despite their diversity, the constants of her poems were nuance and observational humor. Also apparent is Szymborska’s rare ability to present an epiphany in a single line.” —Publishers Weekly, starred and boxed review
“Both plain-spoken and luminous…Szymborska’s skepticism, her merry, mischievous irreverence and her thirst for the surprise of fresh perception make her the enemy of all tyrannical certainties. Hers is the best of the Western mind—free, restless, questioning.” —NY Times Book Review
Satirical & humorous stories about serious topics in Barbados
A collection of award-winning Barbadian stories that showcase the controversial and often hidden aspects of the supposed Caribbean paradise.
The themes of love and relationships, domestic and emotional abuse, politics in the rum shop, sex tourism and human trafficking and more, are narrated in a satirical and humorous style, often through the voices of innocent and naïve characters.
“Issue-based writing that doesn't seem preachy or pedantic. There is humour. There is full humanity. There is certainly a love of Barbados and the Caribbean evidenced through a willingness to peek beneath the paradisical surface, poke beneath the tropical facade and embrace, warts and all, the society that inhabits our dynamic island and archipelago.” —Ayesha Gibson
Philosophical essays by a Nobel Prize-winning French Algerian
Written by a Nobel Prize-winning author
“Thinking is learning all over again how to see, directing one's consciousness, making of every image a privileged place.”
One of the most influential works of this century, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays is a crucial exposition of existentialist thought.
Influenced by works such as Don Juan and the writings of Kafka, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche, these philosophical essays begin with a meditation on suicide; the question of living or not living in a universe devoid of order or meaning.
With lyric eloquence, Albert Camus brilliantly posits a way out of despair, reaffirming the value of personal existence, and the possibility of life lived with dignity and authenticity.
Three gritty novellas from the Japanese ghetto
Winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, one of Japan's most sought after literary prizes.
Born into the burakumin—Japan’s class of outcasts—Kenji Nakagami depicts the lives of his people in sensual language and stark detail. The Cape is a breakthrough novella about a burakumin community—Japan’s minority class often called “untouchables”—their troubled memories, and complex family histories.
“Western readers often assume that Japan is one homogeneous culture, but Nakagami, award-winning burakumin writer, exposes the fissures behind this facade. In these stories, Nakagami is unrelentingly grim, showing a Zola-like obsession with inherited traits. In the final entry, Nakagami gives rein to his erotic side, depicting the frenzied and strange coupling of Kozo, a construction worker, and a mysterious red-haired hitchhiker.” —Publishers Weekly
Emotional stories about relationships in China
Masterful short works about passion, family, and human relationships.
These six stories, most available in English for the first time, were published to acclaim in China and Hong Kong in the '40s; they explore, bewitchingly, the myriad ways love overcomes (or doesn't) the intense social constraints of time and place.
Eileen Chang is one of the great writers of 20th century China, where she enjoys a passionate following both on the mainland and in Taiwan. At the heart of Chang’s achievement is her short fiction—tales of love, longing, and the shifting and endlessly treacherous shoals of family life. Written when Chang was still in her twenties, these extraordinary stories combine an unsettled, probing, utterly contemporary sensibility, keenly alert to sexual politics and psychological ambiguity, with an intense lyricism that echoes the classics of Chinese literature. Love in a Fallen City, the first collection in English of this dazzling body of work, introduces American readers to the stark and glamorous vision of a modern master.
“With language as sharp as a knife edge, Eileen Chang cut open a huge divide in Chinese culture, between the classical patriarchy and our troubled modernity. She was one of the very few able truly to connect that divide, just as her heroines often disappeared inside it. She is the fallen angel of Chinese literature, and now, with these excellent new translations, English readers can discover why she is so revered by Chinese readers everywhere.” —Ang Lee
Childhood stories of family, country, and belonging from Australia
Winner, Small Publisher Book of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards
What is it like to grow up Aboriginal in Australia? This anthology, compiled by award-winning author Anita Heiss, showcases many diverse voices, experiences and stories in order to answer that question. Accounts from well-known authors and high-profile identities sit alongside those from newly discovered writers of all ages. All of the contributors speak from the heart—sometimes calling for empathy, oftentimes challenging stereotypes, always demanding respect.
This groundbreaking collection will enlighten, inspire and educate about the lives of Aboriginal people in Australia today.
Contributors include: Tony Birch, Deborah Cheetham, Adam Goodes, Terri Janke, Patrick Johnson, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Jack Latimore, Celeste Liddle, Amy McQuire, Kerry Reed-Gilbert, Miranda Tapsell, Jared Thomas, Aileen Walsh, Alexis West, Tara June Winch, and many more.
”Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia is a mosaic, its more than 50 tiles—short personal essays with unique patterns, shapes, colours and textures—coming together to form a powerful portrait of resilience.” —The Saturday Paper
”... provides a diverse snapshot of Indigenous Australia from a much needed Aboriginal perspective.” —The Saturday Age
“Black Australia is a patchwork—there is no homogenous black culture or experience. Adequately capturing the essence of hundreds of nations is no easy feat, but Heiss has pulled together an incredible bunch of voices that reflect the humour, intelligence, strength and diversity of Aboriginal people.” —Nayuka Gorrie, Feminist Writers Festival
“Taken together, the diversity exhibited by these fifty pieces shatters that myth [that there is only one narrowly defined way to be and look Aboriginal]. One hopes for a sequel.” —Australian Book Review
exquisite Gothic tales from Denmark
Here are seven exquisite tales combining the keen psychological insight characteristic of the modern short story with the haunting mystery of the 19th-century Gothic tale, in the tradition of writers such as Goethe, Hoffmann, and Poe.
Seven Gothic Tales was instantly popular when it was first published, revolving around mysterious, bizarre or supernatural events that explore questions of philosophy and identity. Although writing of death and failed loved affairs, Dinesen’s lush, ornate prose also has moments of humour.
“These Danish tales are a modern refinement of German romanticism. They are peopled, or haunted, by ghosts of a past age, voluptuaries dreaming of the singers and ballerinas of the operas of Mozart and Gluck, young men who are too melancholy to enjoy love or too perverse to profit by it, maidens dedicated to chastity and others hopeful of a gentlemanly seduction; their generally fantastic adventures are exquisitely played.” —The NY Times
”A book in that special realm in which artistry is more real than reality.” — Time
A bitterwsweet graphic novel of an Iraqi childhood
Nominated for the Kirkus Prize & YALSA's Great Graphic Novels. Appeared on best of the year lists from Kirkus, Guardian, Vulture, Forbes, and more.
Poppies of Iraq is Brigitte Findakly’s nuanced tender chronicle of her relationship with her homeland Iraq, co-written and drawn by her husband, the acclaimed cartoonist Lewis Trondheim. In spare and elegant detail, they share memories of her middle class childhood touching on cultural practices, the education system, Saddam Hussein’s state control, and her family’s history as Orthodox Christians in the Arab world.
Poppies of Iraq is intimate and wide-ranging; the story of how one can become separated from one’s homeland and still feel intimately connected yet ultimately estranged.
Signs of an oppressive regime permeate a seemingly normal life: magazines arrive edited by customs; the color red is banned after the execution of General Kassim; Baathist militiamen are publicly hanged and school kids are bussed past them to bear witness. As conditions in Mosul worsen over her childhood, Brigitte’s father is always hopeful that life in Iraq will return to being secular and prosperous. The family eventually feels compelled to move to Paris, however, where Brigitte finds herself not quite belonging to either culture. Trondheim brings to life Findakly’s memories to create a poignant family portrait that covers loss, tragedy, love, and the loneliness of exile.
“What is it like to grow up in Iraq? That’s the question at the heart of Poppies of Iraq... a beautifully drawn graphic novel that shows how growing up in Iraq is more complicated than it seems." —Bitch Magazine
“Poignant and powerful... a meditation on the ache and longing for a place you can no longer return.” —Boston Globe
"Small in size but large in impact, this intimate memoir is a highly relevant and compassionate story of family, community, prejudice, and the struggle to love when the forces of the world push groups apart."—Kirkus
“[Poppies of Iraq's] power lies in the contrast between the matter-of-fact nature of the text and visuals, and the dread and horror of the backdrop... there is also hope to be found here — the hope that, no matter what befalls a nation, there will always be individuals who can craft something beautiful by virtue of their survival.” —Vulture
"This absorbing graphic memoir offers an insider’s view of the rapid cultural changes that beset Iraq in the latter half of the 20th century... Short vignettes about her family, school, and local customs are alternately bittersweet, funny, and affecting as a series of military and political coups impact her family’s life in Iraq... A moving, thought-provoking title for all collections."—School Library Journal, Starred Review